Friends and Dragons
by Paragon of Spite
Summary: How will our favourite computerized magicians react when suddenly thrust into a world vastly different from their own and separated from their support bases?
1. Reunion Arc - Chapter 1

When the alarm sounded at 5am, Erika had already been wide awake for half an hour. The inevitable grumbling complaint from the other bed in the room was the only reason she set it even that late. Throwing off the covers, she climbed out of bed and on bare feet padded over to the window. For her, this was an unbearably late start to the day, but she'd learned to make allowances. The drapes muted the light streaming in from the outside, but didn't entirely eliminate it. With a wicked grin on her face, she threw open the shades.

"No! Erika-chan, that's too bright!"

The pitiful wail from the bed directly in front of the window was expected; she had done this every day there was a bright morning. As the person who emitted it burrowed deeper into the blankets—also expected—she turned back to the window and studied the shockingly primitive street outside.

A year had now passed since she had come to this place with her only friend, and she still couldn't quite believe those cars outside burned _gasoline_ for power. In her half-remembered history lessons, she knew that most countries without a steady local supply abandoned it as a fuel source decades before. Solar, wind, and nuclear power serviced most needs, with natural gas filling in the holes. In her time, the year 2097, not even old car aficionados retained the original internal combustion engines without converting them to natural gas.

But, this wasn't 2097. In this Japan, the year was 2017 and, other than in fantasy movies and books, magic didn't exist here. She had been here a year now, and she still had no idea how it was possible. It happened late in her second year of Magic High School. The others in her circle were busy with clubs or Student Council work, and she had been left alone with her friend, Mizuki.

Not that she minded that, of course, as the girl was her best friend. They decided to go to the cafe where her group spent much of their school life, but they never made it. Air blurred around them as soon as they stepped outside school grounds, and the world they knew vanished. Next thing they were aware of, they were both here, wherever the hell here was.

Japan, but not their Japan.

Her magic still worked, which meant that it was at least possible for it to exist here, but her magic-enhanced police baton ran out of power after a month and the 100V supply locally available didn't match its requirements. Without it, all she had left was personal self-acceleration magic. Her family was gone, and even if the Chibas existed in this era, they wouldn't recognize her as one of their own. They barely recognized her as it was.

"Erika-chan, what's the matter?" Mizuki's sounded concerned, her voice still shrouded in sleep.

When she turned to look, her friend was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at her with uncertainty and concern. If she had come here alone, Erika didn't think she could have survived and was profoundly grateful to Mizuki for all the help she'd given her in coping with the situation. Still, for her friend's sake, she wished Mizuki had stayed home.

"Morning, Mizuki. Never mind me, I'm just brooding."

"About—?"

There was almost no need to answer as this was a conversation they'd had countless times. Still, courtesy demanded otherwise.

"I can't help it. My family and yours, our _friends_. Like a bad dream, it's all gone. And this world… Even in 2017, magic should already be on the news, not to mention global cooling. It seems to be the complete opposite here, no magic and global warming. Then, of course, there was that incident half a year ago."

"You mean the attack?" She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "Yeah, that was scary."

"Mizuki, scary isn't the word here. You almost lost your sanity."

"But you kept me safe. Even through the worst of it, I could hear your voice." Mizuki rose to her feet and bowed. "I will always be grateful."

Erika felt her face flush at that. "Please, what are friends for? But we never really discussed it, or what it really means."

They were wards of the state now, placed initially in two different group homes, but Erika had petitioned very strongly—read, threatened violence—to be kept together with Mizuki, and the bureaucracy finally agreed. They'd been placed in high school at a lower grade than their ostensible age of 17 should have required. As it turned out, 2 years of Magic High School education woefully underprepared both of them for lives in a world where that was a useless skill.

It wasn't the best high school, with a reputation for violence and bullying that the administrators kept low-key so as to not overexert themselves. In that respect, at least, it was a world much like her own, with adults shirking responsibility. Soon after enrolling, word spread that Erika was a bad target for bullying and she would go to any lengths to protect Mizuki. Doing anything stupid to either of them was just asking for broken bones and black eyes.

The admins didn't appreciate Erika taking action when all they wanted to do was bury their heads in the sand, and so here they were at XYZ High School. All things considered, they were happy here. The group home itself was hard, too, and over an hour away from the school by train, but Erika had grown up with a difficult family situation, so she could at least shield Mizuki as much as possible.

Then, half a year after arriving in this bizarre, primitive version of Japan, something happened that threw all of their assumptions out the window. An attack across the world by an unknown entity that sank whole fleets, knocked hundreds of warplanes out of the sky, and set entire countries on fire. Religious groups were claiming it was the end of the world, and even Tokyo was threatened. Air raid sirens blared and Mizuki had a minor breakdown, thinking it was another attack by the Great Asian Alliance, curiously still called China in this world.

They never personally saw this entity, but what almost drove Mizuki mad with pain was the appearance of something—or _someone_ —so luminous to her friend's spirit-sensitive eyes that the light penetrated the protective lenses she wore over her eyes. To Erika, it looked like a man-sized dragon, with claws, a long prehensile tail, and scales so crimson they almost hurt the eyes. Whatever that thing was, it fought countless others that looked exactly like it, but Mizuki didn't have the same reaction to them.

"Erika-chan, what do you really think that was?"

"No idea. This world seems completely mundane, with no magic whatsoever, yet it's attacked by a nigh omnipotent giant thing with six heads and an army of red dragons fight to the death."

"They say on the Internet that evidence of these fights has been disappearing from the various servers around the world. It's almost like someone is cleaning up, trying to make people forget."

The Internet. At least that existed here, but it was so slow and primitive that she wanted to cry every time she used it. A knock on the door interrupted her musings. Erika quickly pulled on a robe and went to the answer it. There was a boy there, younger than her by five years, an orphan made so by that same incident.

"Good morning, Erika-san, Mizuki-san," he said with a bow. A blush was spreading across his face when he looked inside, and Mizuki quickly covered herself up, not that she was indecent to begin with.

"Good morning, Akihiko-kun," Erika replied without the usual teasing in her voice.

Not only was this a young boy in pain from the sudden loss of his parents, something she could sympathize with, but he was a good kid who didn't deserve the usual treatment she meted out. That, and his name was too similar to another close friend she had lost.

"What's up?"

"There was a man here yesterday while you were at school," he said, "and a woman."

"A couple? Were they looking to adopt someone?"

There were always those, but most were interested only in young children, usually not older than five. Erika and Mizuki, on the cusp of adulthood, had no real hope of being accepted into another family, and certainly not together.

He shook his head. "They were asking about the two of you. Quite serious, too. I don't know exactly what they spoke about with Hideo-san, but they seemed happy and satisfied when they left."

Erika bowed. "Thank you for telling me."

He wasn't finished, though. "After they left, Hideo-san told me to go to the garden outside in the morning and give you this."

Pressing a small yellow flower into her hands, he fled.

Erika stared at his rapidly departing back and then turned her attention to the flower in her hands. What a strange love profession.

"What's that?" Mizuki asked when she returned to their room.

"Akihiko just gave this to me," she replied with a bemused voice. "I think you're the one who pointed out that he sees me as a big sister. But it's strange, don't you think? Is giving dandelions to an elder sister a custom in this age?" It was the shocked gasp that made her look up from her examination of the flower into her friend's suddenly bloodless face. "Mizuki? What's wrong?"

"Erika!" Mizuki's tone was anguished as she stared at the yellow flower. "I wish you'd pay more attention in class."

"What, this again? We talked about this, and I'm studying harder. You know that."

"Yes, yes, but Erika! It's a dandelion."

"I know. What of it?"

"What's the word flowers like that are called in common?"

"It's a common weed, of course. Even I—!" She almost dropped it in her realization. "A weed!"

Blooms and Weeds, forbidden terms to describe Course 1—those kids with strong magic skills—and Course 2—those with weak skills—students at Magic First High. She and Mizuki had both been Weeds, students not expected to excel, but this was the first time they'd heard of it since coming to this world a year ago.

"Someone in this world knows who we are."


	2. Reunion Arc - Chapter 2

After suffering through a minor panic attack precipitated by the sudden revelation that they were not as anonymous in this world as they thought, in the end, neither Erika nor Mizuki could decide on anything. They put that question aside for the time being and got ready for school. In this age, public transit was awful and they had to leave the house much earlier just for the chance to arrive on time.

It was eight o'clock when they got off the bus with Erika fuming. What kind of perverts did this age really have? She was only 18 years old, after all, and she got her butt groped three times on the same bus.

As they made their way to school amid the throng of the student body, they found Vice Principal Fujioka standing at the gate.

"I've been waiting for you," he said, pushing himself off the wall, and approached them.

"We are not late, sensei," Erika replied before Mizuki could start bowing in apology.

"I didn't say you were, so there's no need for the attitude."

Since enrolling at this school, Erika found him to be the most disturbing of all of the staff. He cared little about her status as an orphan, and whenever she was in trouble, which happened quite frequently, he never made excuses for her, nor allowed her to make them. There were lots of kids in their situation following the brief, horribly surreal world war, many with PTSD symptoms. Since she was not one of them, she should just take responsibility for her actions.

On their first meeting, he asked if Erika ever had any martial arts training and then pressured her into joining the Kendo club. How the hell he read her so well and so quickly was a complete mystery to her. Mizuki ended up in an arts club again, where she earned many accolades over her graphic design ability. She'd even said once that she liked the more primitive software as it allowed for her creativity to better flow.

Erika was a little leery of this man who insisted she could come to him with any concerns, problems, or worries. In her experience, adults were only interested in children as tools for their own benefit. Could this world really be all that much different from her own?

Even the way this school managed its extracurricular clubs was markedly different from First High where students managed everything not related to financing or administration by themselves. Here, a teacher was assigned to each club as a supervising advisor, which was a novel idea in itself.

Still, giving lip to people is what she did.

"So, to what do we owe the pleasure, Fujioka-sensei?"

"Erika-chan, please." Mizuki was distinctly uncomfortable now, and she wondered if she'd gone too far again.

But the Vice Principal didn't chastise her. Instead, he smiled tightly.

"Come with me. Both of you are wanted in the Principal's Office before your classes start."

They didn't argue. One didn't. Instead, the whole way there, Erika racked her brains for what she did to earn this, but couldn't come up with anything. She hadn't been fighting, she didn't drink or do drugs, and she wasn't a member of any gang. It was impossible for Mizuki to be responsible, so what had they done?

"Wait here," Fujioka said when they reached the waiting room of the Principal's office, indicating the chairs. "I'll notify your homeroom teacher."

They waited for half an hour, then another, and a third. The bell had already sounded and classes began. Erika could only hope Arakaki-sensei, the homeroom teacher, wouldn't take it out on them later. A most unreasonable woman in an otherwise mostly reasonable school.

After nearly three hours of waiting, a secretary led them into the Principal's office. Erika fumed the whole time. Why couldn't they just attend class like normal and be called out at some point later in the day? Mizuki, of course, looked dejected and ready to curl into a ball.

Naoomi Hosokawa, the Principal, was alone in his office when they entered and invited them to take seats. He smiled after one look at Mizuki's condition.

"Please, don't feel apprehensive. You are not in trouble at all."

"Then, Hosokawa-sensei, can you tell us why we're here?" Erika asked. "We've just missed three classes."

He laughed, the delighted sound of an educator who had gotten through to a problem child. Erika flushed, unable to believe she allowed herself to fall for that.

"Before we get into that, I wanted to ask how you've been adopting to your new life in this school."

"It hasn't been easy," Mizuki answered before Erika could open her mouth. But what a question to ask three-quarters of a year after enrolling here. "Without my friend Erika, I don't think I could have made it by myself."

"I can say the same thing about you, Mizuki," Erika said. "My temperament isn't exactly placid, but you somehow keep me straight. Sorry for the trouble."

"No, it's not like that at all." Mizuki blushed and fell silent.

"You two are very close," Hosokawa said after watching the exchange. "That became obvious as soon as you enrolled. As for your club activities, Erika, your work in the Kendo club has been outstanding. Doi-san has praised you again and again, and though you refused to participate in actual competitions, you helped raise our club to the next level. He even said that he had to up his own game to keep up with you."

Kendo was not her speciality. Using a magically assisted sword in live combat was how she had been raised by her own family, a humanoid weapon in all but name, as all magicians were. She was only able to handle that club because she'd spent over a year watching her now-lost friend Sayaka during practice, and even taking part in some of those sessions herself.

But he was continuing to speak. "Mizuki as well, your contribution in the arts and the library are also exceptional. Your layout, design, and eye for colour are almost at the professional level. You would certainly be accepted to any university with an Arts & Design degree."

Her suspicion had been growing almost since he began speaking, and she gave voice to it as soon as he paused for breath.

"Hosokawa-sensei, why do you sound like we are parting ways?"

"Eh?" Mizuki seemed surprised as her head whipped around to stare at her friend, then back at the Principal.

He sighed and looked pensively down at his desk before lifting his eyes to meet hers.

"Because, I am afraid, we are. We received an email yesterday from the Board of Education, ordering your immediate transfer to another school. I argued with them, of course. After those traumatic events half a year ago, with so many children left homeless and forced into group homes without families, providing stability should be of overriding concern. Instead, it seems to me they are focused more on head counts and funding."

He was taking it harder than she was. They were wards of the state, without status, position, or family of their own. Their only identification was entailed in the technology they had carried over with them from the other world and couldn't be used. Not then, and certainly not now. But, this Japan gave them a place, a home, a school; if it needed them to move, Erika was not going to complain. She could only hope she could continue protecting Mizuki in their new home.

"Please don't worry about it, Hosokawa-sensei," she said. "So long as Mizuki and I are together, I have no real cause for complaint. It's hard moving and setting up new relationships, but until we are adults ourselves, there is nothing to be done about it. When is this transfer to take place?"

She wanted to at least say goodbye to Akihiko-kun and Hideo-san at the group home. Those two made their whole situation tolerable.

"It's immediate, I'm afraid," the Principal replied, dashing her hopes. Laying a sheet of paper on the desk and turned it towards them both. That was the other thing about this world, it printed _everything_ on actual real paper. Before coming here, the only books she had seen were related to magic. "Please read this."

It was filled with legalese that Erika didn't understand in her own world, and certainly didn't understand it here. The only thing she understood was the name of the school they would both transfer to: _Kuoh Academy_.

"Where the heck is that?"

"The oddly-named Kuoh Town," the Principal replied as she exchanged a confused glance with Mizuki. "It's like a much smaller version of Tokyo, about two hours away by train. Nonetheless, despite the city's size, this is a first-class school. This formerly girls-only school accepted boys for several years now, but the ratio, especially in the higher grades, still strongly disfavours them. It's composed of primary, middle, and high school divisions, and even includes a university. Of course they are not all in the same building, but their campuses are very close to each other."

"But sensei, what do you mean, it's immediate?" Erika couldn't keep quiet about that. Obeying orders was one thing, but this seemed crazy. "We need time to pack, to arrange transportation, which we can't afford. Even to say goodbye to friends we would need at least some time."

He nodded in agreement. "You may have been wondering why you had to wait for so long outside. I was on the phone for hours to the head office with those exact questions." Erika was honestly impressed at this point. "It's all been arranged."

"What, since yesterday when you received that email?"

"They told me it's been in the works for weeks now and your move has already been arranged for. I've received contact information for both your proposed residence there and Kuoh Academy administration, as well as photos of the people sent to escort you. They're waiting outside."

"But—" She wondered suddenly if this had anything to do with the earlier "Weed" incident.

Before she could say anything else, he pressed a button on his intercom.

"Please send them in."

The pair who entered, man and woman, seemed so ordinary to Erika's eyes, perfect Japanese. Dressed in regular, everyday clothing, they looked like a married couple rather than government agents. Were these the same pair who had come around the group home earlier? Vice Principal Fujioka entered with them and sat down in a chair between the two girls.

"Erika, Mizuki, this is Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou," he said. "They've come to escort you to Kuoh Town where you will be attending school from now on."

"We are very pleased to meet you, ladies," the man said. "Our son is a 3rd year student at Kuoh Academy and is looking forward to being your classmate."

"Why?"

Erika's bluntness seemed to catch them completely by surprise and they blinked several times in confusion. Mizuki was looking at her with uncertainty in her eyes, but the dominant expression on Hosokawa-sensei's face was approval, while Fujioka wore an unreadable mask.

"Forgive my rudeness," she went on, "but why would your son, whom we do not know and who doesn't know us, be looking forward to being our classmate?"

They stared at each other as though it wasn't a question they had a ready answer for, and Erika wondered if she'd gone overboard. Were they just regular people like they appeared, or were they competent agents pretending to be ordinary? And if they were agents, whom did they serve?

That dandelion was first and foremost on her mind.

Or, as seemed more and more likely, was this merely a symptom of her rising paranoia?

"I'm sorry, honey," the woman said at last, "but we thought it had all been arranged already. Didn't you receive a message indicating this transfer?"

"Do you mean the flower?" She deliberately avoided using the term "weed."

Mrs. Hyoudou shook her head. "I'm sorry, did you say flower? I thought it'd be a telephone call or even an email." She turned to her ostensible husband. "Anyway, what are you waiting for? Give it to them."

"Oh, right, right."

When they entered, Erika hardly noticed, but there was a bag on the floor between his legs. He reached inside and pulled out two small boxes. One he handed to Mizuki.

"Our son said that Mizuki-chan might have trouble with her eyes and needs stronger glasses."

With trembling hands, Mizuki took it in her hands and opened it. Inside was a single pair of glasses. She removed her own and stared at the gift for a long moment before suddenly bursting into tears.

"Mizuki, are you alright?" Erika felt a sudden onset of uneasiness and concern. Of the two of them, the other girl displayed far more emotional stability than she did, despite her timid nature. For her to suddenly overreact this way was more than a cause for alarm.

"This is Yoshida-kun's work." Awestruck, Mizuki whispered loudly enough to be heard by everyone. In her surprise, she apparently forgot that such things should not be discussed in mixed company. "I can see his pattern on the lenses." She turned her unprotected eyes to the purported husband-and-wife pair before looking away with a pained wince.

"Stupid girl," Erika snapped. "It's obvious you're in pain, so put them on immediately."

Mizuki slipped the new pair on and visibly relaxed.

"I'm okay now."

"Do they fit well?" the woman asked.

"Thank you, they're perfect."

While they conversed about the new glasses, Erika's mind churned with possibility. Mizuki knew only one Yoshida, so if Mikihiko was also here in this world, that opened up whole new realms of possibility. Maybe it even explained the flower. But where the hell was he, and why send this badly acted joke as intermediaries?

And how, in the name of sanity, did he or anybody else, for that matter, know the exact measurements of Mizuki's glasses?

"And now for you, Erika-chan," the man said, handing her a different package. "A present."

From it she pulled out a black power block attached to a long power cable and terminating in five plain two-prong plugs.

"Erika-chan, are you crying?" Mizuki asked in a voice full of concern.

Was she? She didn't even notice. Erika wiped her eyes and looked back to reassure her friend.

"Mizuki, what are you saying? Crying, that's so last century."

"No? My mistake, then." She looked away, but a small smile played across her lips.

Erika turned to the Hyoudou couple.

"Thank you very much for these gifts. I don't know if you realize their significance to us, but these are probably the most important things we've received in the last year. I would really like for an opportunity to thank your son for them, but—"

"Just a moment," Fujioka butted in. "There is something I'd like verified before you go too far with that."

She turned an incredulous gaze on him. "Fujioka-sensei?"

"Yes, what is it?" Mr. Hyoudou asked.

"These gifts that have come out of nowhere and seem designed to break down any resistance they may feel, are they contingent on them accepting this transfer to a new school?"

Erika swore at herself. For all of her suspicion, she never even considered the possibility. Yet, was it really probable, though? Mizuki said Mikihiko made the glasses, and he was in Kuoh Town, then she could hazard a guess as to who among her acquaintances possessed the absurd level of technical skill to build a power block to charge both of her CADs and the data terminal that lay dormant under the mattress of her bed.

She turned her attention back to the Hyoudous who now looked dumbfounded and more than a little disgusted, seemingly at themselves. At first she thought it was at Fujioka's assertion that their gift-giving was something bad, but then she realized that that wasn't it all.

"I am very sorry," Mr. Hyoudou said at last. "Please forgive us. I just realized what it looked like. Kuoh Academy is supported by the Gremory family, and since the incidents half a year ago, they have called for an expansion of the school and student body, as well as building new housing and child care facilities, to take in a larger number of orphans than would otherwise be possible in our town. When they heard about both of you, they asked us to come to Tokyo to personally pick you up."

Fujioka looked surprised. "Gremory family, as in the chain of Gremory-named high-end hotels that have been springing up all over the country? 'Gremory Excelsior', 'Gremory Grand', and the 'Kyoto Sirzechs Hotel'? That Gremory family?"

"I'm surprised to find out you know about the last one," Mr. Hyoudou said with a smile, "but essentially, this is them."

Even Erika had heard of them, but why would a rich, powerful family like that concern itself with a pair of orphans who—? She brought herself up short. Did it really matter? Her own father's reasoning on any topic had always been a mystery to her, so why would a completely different family's mindset be any more understandable?

"Who are they?" Mizuki asked. As expected, she wasn't as up-to-date on all the latest gossip as Erika.

"A very wealthy family," Fujioka replied, "but unlike so many others in their situation, they _appear_ to be model corporate citizens."

"Why would people like them have any interest in us?"

That wasn't really what Mizuki was asking, though. Erika perceived that her actual question was, what did Yoshida-kun have to do with them? Not that she could voice this out loud.

"Mizuki, it's okay."

"Erika-chan?"

"These two items we just received, they aren't so much an enticement as they are an invitation."

"Are you sure?" Fujioka asked, leaning toward her. "This whole thing smells very fishy to me. My apologies, Hosokawa-san, but this is just too irregular."

Irregular, eh? Erika mused. Another term she had not heard since coming to this world, and that one hit too close to home.

"No, I share your concern, Fujioka-san. I spent the better part of the morning verifying the details. It all _seems_ on the up-and-up." He frowned. "That is, unless we consider the Board of Education to have been suborned somehow."

"Erika, Mizuki, what do you want to do?" Hosokawa asked, leaning forward across his desk. "We try to keep them to a minimum as they are very disruptive, especially for children in your situation—" At least he didn't say _orphan_ , Erika thought with gratitude. "—but these transfer orders are not uncommon and are generally issued for what the head office thinks are good reasons. However, with a third party involved, there would a good case for appealing this decision. You would remain in school here and stay at your current residence until the appeal is resolved."

"Hosokawa-sensei, Fujioka-sensei, I want to go," Mizuki said, a surprisingly fierce expression on her face. "If he really made these glasses, then I have to go there to see if he's okay. What do you think, Erika?"

"I think so, too."

"But all this skulduggery," Fujioka protested, "is it really necessary for something so ordinary as a school transfer? I mean, it's Kuoh Town, not Antarctica."

"And I think I know who is responsible for it," Erika said with a laugh. "Don't worry, I'll thoroughly chastise him when I see him next."

Almost forgotten in the discussion was the couple who started it all in the first place. Mr. Hyuodou suddenly spoke up. "Is it that you're distrustful of this sudden offer? I understand. If I were in your position and was suddenly told I had to go to a new place in a new town with a couple I've never met before, I would think there was something shady about it, too. Fortunately, there is a way to resolve this dilemma."

He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.

"Ishikawa-san?" he said after a moment. "This is Hyoudou. How do you do? Yes, we are in Tokyo right now, but we seem to have messed things up. Can you get Yoshida-kun to come to the phone?" Erika gasped in surprise. It had never occurred to her to do that. "In gym class, you say? Yes, it's important, can you call him out for me? No, I'll wait on this line."

He placed the cell phone on the Principal's desk and turned on the speaker function. They could hear the person on the other end speaking to someone else, instructing them to make an announcement.

"I don't know how long it'll take," Mr. Hyoudou said. "It's a pretty big school, after all, and the gym is quite far from the main office."

He was wrong, though. Erika had known Yoshida for years and, assuming he was called out immediately, it wouldn't take him all that long to get there. In fact, she was sure that he was the school's phys-ed ace.

While they waited, Erika noticed that her friend was surreptitiously pulling off her new glasses and glancing at the Hyoudou couple before putting them back on, repeating time after time. Was she trying to understand something? Among her closest circle of friends in her old world, Mizuki was the one with the least amount of magic and combat power, though she still passed all of her tests without any help, unlike Erika herself. Well, in terms of combat power, 'least amount' didn't quite cut it. In fact, she had none at all.

To a lesser or greater extend, they had all been eclipsed by the leader of their little clique and his overly beautiful younger sister. She smirked at herself. Even now, after a year had passed, she still couldn't say his name as that would make this whole situation entirely too real. His technical skills in magic were sub par, worse even than Erika's own—on paper, at least—but he more than made up for it with knowledge, analysis, and martial arts.

Indeed, during their first year Nine School Competition, he had so shocked and embarrassed the school with his analytic and physical capabilities, not to mention his sense of tactics and strategy, that they ended up creating a Course 3 for kids who preferred Magic Engineering to general magic studies.

Of course, those were the skills he let everyone see. She didn't even want to think about the lineage he'd kept hidden since enrolling in First High. Two years before, she found out the secret he had been concealing, and the memory of that revelation still terrified her.

Mizuki, on the other hand, even if she was called 'magician' by regular people, wouldn't be able to fight her way out of a paper bag. What she did have, the one skill she could call her own, was an over-sensitivity to Pushion—spirit particles—emissions, giving her the ability to see that which could not be seen. Her glasses, with no grade to the lenses, protected her from the worst of it, and these new ones were even stronger.

If she was constantly pulling them off to look at that couple with her own eyes, then there was something about them that bothered her. That made Erika pay them more attention herself.

A small commotion could be heard from the phone.

" _It's Yoshida-kun,"_ a female voice said.

" _Come in, come in,"_ a man who Erika presumed was the other school's Principal said.

" _You wanted to see me, Ishikawa-sensei?"_ a painfully familiar voice asked.

He sounded more mature now, more sure of himself, but it was definitely him. There was no tension in his voice, no duress. Except for being more grownup, he sounded exactly like he did before the accident early in his adolescence that robbed him of his powers and his self-confidence. During their first magic competition, she saw his powers return to their former glory, but not the self-confidence that should have followed. Now he truly was back to his normal self.

" _There are some people on the phone who would to speak with you. Over here."_

" _Yes? This is Yoshida speaking."_

Hearing his voice, speaking entirely without reserve or stress or fear, the one who buried her face in her hands and fled Hosokawa's office in tears was Erika.


	3. Reunion Arc - Chapter 3

_**A/N:** Hello and welcome to the third chapter of "Friends and Dragons." As you may have guessed, this is a crossover fic for Irregular at Magic High School x High School DxD, told from Erika's perspective after she and Mizuki end up in that world. Well, nothing more to say here other than, thank you for reading._

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Erika never heard the first part of Mizuki's conversation with her long-lost love interest. Out in the waiting room, all she could do was hold her face in her hands and sob. Mrs. Hyoudou rushed out with her and, with her help, she managed to put herself back together in time to return for the last part. What the hell was that, anyway, suddenly becoming emotional over hearing his voice. When she saw him next, she would need to punish him for embarrassing her like that.

On returning to the Principal's office, Erika found Mizuki happily engrossed in conversation. She'd carried a torch for him almost since the day he joined their group, though Erika suspected it might have been even from before that. At first, upon enrolling at First High, he projected a dark, unapproachable aura. He wouldn't even speak with Erika for the first three months, and for a girl as shy as Mizuki, that made it almost impossible for her to talk to him.

He thawed after some time and the two of them tiptoed around each other for almost two years now. Like half the school, Erika believed they should just get on with it. Love between magicians was a good thing, and they were encouraged to marry young.

But, she reminded herself, this was not the Japan they knew. It wasn't even their world. From what she'd seen so far, the country and even the world wasn't intent on turning children into weapons from the earliest age, thereby denying them choice in their future. Only religious fanatics went for that sort of thing, and those were the same here in the new world as they were in her old one. Perhaps motivation was different here, but in the end, they were the same kind of people.

Not that it was all a rosy paradise, and student suicide rates in Japan were absurdly high, but at least there was peace. Kind of.

To live in this world, they would need to obey this world's rules. For that, if they needed to move to this Kuoh Town, she would not complain. Mizuki certainly didn't look like she minded.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder what sort of rules this world had when, even though it had no magic at all, six-headed beasts floated in the sky and breathed fire on whole countries while multicoloured balls of light swirled madly around it in what could only be described as an attack pattern. What sort of world lacked magic yet had red man-sized dragons? Why did her own magic still work? Even more importantly, why was Mizuki still sensitive to Pushions which, by rights, should not exist here?

 _What the hell was this world?_

"Erika, you're back," her friend said when the door closed behind her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied, giving the girl a bright, somewhat fake smile. "Sorry for worrying you." Mizuki, with almost three years of experience, could see right through it, but didn't say anything. She just smiled in return and nodded.

"Mikihiko-kun, Erika is back," Mizuki said into the cell phone on the table. Wow, thought Erika with amazement, Mizuki changed the way she addressed him. Did he ask her to use his first name while she was outside?

" _Erika? What happened? Are you alright?"_

His voice she remembered clearer than anyone's. Childhood friends, but never sweethearts, they saw each other through the worst of the harsh training assigned to them by their respective parents. Their families couldn't be more different. His, the Yoshidas, an old and respected family that taught Ancient Magic as a religious practice to its many disciples. Hers, the Chibas, an upstart that applied Modern Magic techniques to bladed weaponry and taught close-quarters combat to its many students in the military and the police. Yet, despite the differences, they found in each other a kindred spirit and grew close.

Erika saw it as a personal failure on her part that she was never able to help him through the loss of his powers. It took someone else to do that years later. Of course, now in her late teens, she knew how absurd it had been to beat herself up over it. When it happened, she had been hardly more than a child herself, unsure of her place in the family and at odds with her father and half-sister. Only her two older half-brothers showed any interest in her, giving her a place to safely vent her frustrations. Even if that venting often came with the sharp edge of a blade, her brothers never complained, insisting only on it taking place in the family dojo.

Now, they were gone, like everything else, taken from her by an act of unmitigated gall by the universe. She even missed _that woman_ who stole her brother, though she would never admit that to anyone, let alone to herself.

"I'm fine, Miki," she replied, pulling her mind back to the present. Not everything, it seemed, had been taken from her. Some of it had been returned, though it remained to be seen how much. "How's Kuoh Academy treating you? I hear it used to be a girls-only school and the ratio is still stacked against the boys, so it must feel like you're in heaven."

" _My name is Mikihiko,"_ came the almost automatic response. Erika grinned. She could feel his exasperation through the phone. Was she wrong, though, or was he actually smiling to himself on the other end? _"I was really frantic, not knowing what had happened to either of you, but at least you're both safe. When are you coming? Are you on your way yet?"_

So he was not surprised by their presence in this world, and in fact seemed to be expecting their imminent arrival at his school. So why? Why hadn't he tried contacting them earlier?

"We're still discussing it," she replied, "but I am really glad you're safe, too. By the way, who's also there?"

" _Everyone,"_ was his surprising response and Erika's brain froze. One or two of their friends she could accept. After all, both she and Mizuki arrived together, but his response implied that their entire group had somehow been transported to this world. She wanted to ask more, but the class bell sounded over the phone, followed closely on its heels by the ringing in her own school. _"I have to go change now, but Mizuki, Erika, call me when you're on your way. Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou have my cell phone number, and you can trust them. I_ _'ll explain when you get here_ _. I think_ _i_ _n some ways it would have been better if…"_ With an effort, he made himself stop talking, then continued in a different tone after a brief pause. _"Anyway, I'm glad you're both safe and I'll see you soon."_

The phone beeped and went silent. Mr. Hyoudou put it away.

"My, my, so that was Mikihiko Yoshida," Fujioka said, stroking his cheek, his eyes far away. "If I had known you two were friends of his, I would have put you in contact with him myself."

Erika couldn't hide her surprise as she turned her head to look at him. "Fujioka-sensei, do you know Mikihiko?" Were people in this world aware of magic and magicians like them after all?

"What? Oh no, not personally. Half a year before that incident, there were some Board of Education emails circulating about a large group of orphans found around Tokyo, all of them sixteen and seventeen years of age. Physically, most were in excellent shape, almost to the point of being star athletes, but there were issues. For one thing, their education was compromised in unusual ways, almost as though it had been was slanted in a particular direction and ignored most of the modern curriculum, but they were also far better educated in math, physics, and chemistry than any kids their age. Though I say 'education', but there was no schooling history at all. There were glaring issues, too. For one, they had no ID and couldn't or wouldn't say where they were from other than Japan, but they still freely gave their names.

"The general consensus was that they had escaped from a cult, and the Board of Education genuinely had no idea what to do with them. In the end, they were put up in a hotel with several guardians assigned to them and provided with the basic necessities as they had nothing of their own except for what looked like school uniforms, and very unusual ones, at that. They spent a week in those rooms before word came that Kuoh Academy was willing to take them on.

"One interesting point that came out later was that the guardians were completely superfluous. They were the most self-sufficient and organized teenagers anyone had ever seen."

His eyes rolled over the two girls and Erika's heart skipped a couple of beats. She was suddenly terrified that he would ask the questions that were obviously bothering him and she didn't want to lie to him, not after everything. In the end, the danger passed and he shook his head, murmuring in disgust.

"Why didn't I ever connect the two of you to them? You might have been able to spend this last year with all of your friends."

He looked genuinely disappointed in himself for this perceived failure, and once again Erika was forced to reevaluate her ideas of how adults treated children. At Magic First High, no adult ever apologized for their real failures to protect the students from abuse by outsiders.

Politicians promulgating wild ideas, terrorists, criminal organizations, foreign agents, and even foreign invaders, had all tried their hand at Magic First High. Though they were all eventually beaten back, these nonetheless resulted in actual physical and psychological harm. No one in authority had ever said so much as "We're sorry."

Yet this man was beating himself up over something that could not have been helped or even predicted.

"Fujioka-sensei, please raise your head." It was Mizuki who broke the silence. "Erika and I aren't angry. We are grateful for everything you have done for us this year. You helped both of us so much, and Hosokawa-sensei as well. Even when we were in trouble, there was not one day we didn't want to come to school."

She rose to her feet and Erika, realizing what she meant to do, followed her friend's lead. Together they bowed to the two senior school administrators.

"Thank you very much for taking such good care of us. But, if Yoshida-kun is there, then we both must go to this Kuoh Town. I am sure it won't be easy to move and transition to a new school in the middle of the school year, but I think we have to be together with our friends. Erika-chan, what do you think?"

"I agree," Erika replied, giving her friend a warm smile.

"Please don't think that we are running out on you, but those friends of ours, we've been through so much together that they're closer than family." Especially when _family_ includes a father who ignores you and a mother who won't stand up for you. "I never realized how much I'd miss them until they were gone."

Once again, Erika was impressed with her friend. Mizuki managed to condense one war and two armed conflicts into the words "so much," and that was just in their first year of high school.

"I see," Hosokawa said, slowly dragging out the word. "Fujioka-san, if you have two business cards on you, can you write your cell phone number on them and give them to me?"

"Good idea," the Vice Principal replied and did as he was instructed.

Hosokawa marked up two of his own business cards, stapled them to Fujioka's and then gave one set to Erika and the other to Mizuki.

"Please, take these. If you ever feel like talking, don't hesitate, day or night. When you get to the new school, be sure to call us and let us know how you're settling in."

"Thank you very much!" they both said in unison.

It took a surprisingly short time to sign some paperwork, clear out their lockers, stand in front of the class, and say their goodbyes. Outside, a limo with a pair of youthful drivers waited for them. The girl with the long, silver hair was a few years older than Erika and Mizuki, and introduced herself as Rossweisse, while the handsome boy of their age was Kiba Yuuto.

Something was wrong here. Erika could sense it, but she had no idea how to analyze it. On the surface, the pair behaved with impeccable manners and, apart from their appearance, they looked so normal. But Erika had grown up with a sword in her hand and formed an almost symbiotic relationship with a magic sword developed by the Chiba Family. She could tell at a glance that the boy Yuuto was a trained swordsman and, more importantly, he was like her: trained to kill rather than to show off in competitions.

And like her, he had done, it, too. She could feel it. It was the first evidence she had since coming to this world that yes, here too some children at least had been weaponized.

But that wasn't the issue. Before being a swordswoman, Erika was a magician, even if not a particularly strong one. Like all magicians, she could feel the Eidos and changes within it in her proximity. Therein lay the problem. The boy and the silver-haired young woman gave off a strange vibe, a kind of emptiness that, rather than be swallowed up by the vast information constructs that described reality around them, instead pushed it all aside and stood out in stark, proud relief against the rest of the world.

What's more, she was sure she had felt it once before, at their first school in this world.

She exchanged a troubled glanced with Mizuki who also seemed to realize that something was off here.

"They both attend our son's school," the two girls were told and Erika blinked in surprise.

Whatever else it was, Kuoh Academy was not a normal school.

They went back to the group home to pack their room in the boxes thoughtfully provided by the Hyoudous. Erika stared at them. Was that really a magic circle adorning the sides? There was no magic in the world, but they both knew that fiction was dominated by those kinds of ideas.

"Just the things you absolutely need," the woman said. She had come with them to help and for company. "We have movers coming tomorrow to pack up and move the rest of it. You don't need to worry; they'll be very gentle with your belongings."

"I don't understand, Hyoudou-san," Erika said as she hid her treasured police baton inside her jacket and the power block she'd received in a pocket. "Why are you going to all this effort?"

"What do you mean, Erika-chan?" She frowned at the question.

Erika herself had no idea what she meant. She was reacting to events in this world the same way she would have reacted in her own, and quite clearly that was wrong. Still, a lifetime of experience was a hard truth to deny. She wasn't that old, she realized this, but it was all the experience she had.

"When Mizuki and I came to this school," she said after a moment, "we were given a small stipend to gather supplies, pack, then have our stuff put on a truck which we had to arrange for ourselves, and finally we just took a bus to this place here." She waived her hands to indicate their room at the group home. "I realize we're lucky to even have a room to ourselves, but what I don't get is why transferring to Kuoh Academy requires a personal visit and escort from the Board of Education."

Mrs. Hyoudou smiled. "I think I understand your reticence now, but you're mistaken about something. My husband and I, we don't work for the BoE. We're just here on an errand for the school, and only because our son asked us to. In light of recent events, Kuoh Academy is trying to position itself as a model for other schools to emulate, so leaving children to find their own way across whole districts is out of the question. It may seem unusual to you because Kuoh Town is located so close to Tokyo, but there were other children from further away who were sent escorts as well. All of those were school or BoE employees, so this situation isn't really all that different. I think my husband and I messed things up by frightening the two of you."

"No, no, we weren't frightened," Mizuki protested, waving her arms. Always the peacemaker, Erika thought, looking at her friend with a gentle smile. Unexpectedly, though, sometimes her friend liked to stoke fires. "It was just so surprising, that's all."

"Well, hopefully you'll be able to put all this behind you and enjoy your time at Kuoh Academy."

After they were packed and said their goodbyes, especially to the tearful Akihiko, the same limo picked them up at the door. More than a few looked at their departing car with jealousy in their eyes and Erika turned away, feeling uncomfortable. She hadn't intended to flaunt their luck that way, hadn't even known that's how it would be, and wondered if she'd be able to do anything for those kids.

They proceeded down the confusing warren of streets that made up contemporary Tokyo and headed toward the highway that would take them to Kuoh Town. Erika sat facing forward together with Mizuki, with the Hyuodous facing them. She found a 100V outlet in the car and plugged in her gift, the other end of which she connected to the baton-shaped CAD she'd been concealing. It beeped and a series of blue lights began flashing to indicate a charging sequence. Mrs. Hyoudou's eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she opened a storage compartment and pulled out several small bentos, which she passed to the two girls and her husband.

Erika had in fact been getting hungry, but she didn't want to say anything to disrupt the slightly uncomfortable aura in the car.

"Drinks are inside that armrest between you," the woman added, indicating with her hand where Erika's arm had been lying.

After they had eaten and the empty boxes put away, Mrs. Hyoudou took her husband's hand in hers. It was a surprisingly intimate action for one shown in public. It seemed that they had a pretty good relationship with each other, something that almost made Erika want to howl with jealousy.

"You don't need to tiptoe around us like this," Mr. Hyoudou said, looking at the two girls with warm eyes. "We're aware of your situation." Before she could ask him what he meant, he went ahead and spilled out their secret for all to hear. "Both of you are magicians from another world, or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say, you're magicians-in-training."

Mizuki screamed in utter shock. "Eh?"

But Erika had already suspected that something was up when she saw her friend constantly take her glasses off to look at the pair.

"There's no need to worry," he continued. "You're in no danger and we don't want anything."

"Then why?"

He sighed. "It's as we already explained; the school asked us to come and escort you. Isn't that what adults do, help children?"

Erika shook her head. "That may have been Mizuki's experience with her completely normal family, but it certainly hasn't been mine."

"Erika-chan?" Mizuki turned a confused look on her friend, but she couldn't stop once she started speaking. Too many years of frustration were boiling over and she had no idea how to handle it. Instead, she went with the tried-and-true method of throwing a childish tantrum.

"Children are nothing more than tools for their elders to use as they see fit," she managed to say through clenched teeth as her self-control crumbled and fell apart. "Tell me why you're doing this. I will never accept that it's just for our sake. No one does that for children."

In another place and another time, something similar happened to her. She had broken through a secret so shocking and terrifying that she couldn't stop speaking then either. A boy who never grew angry or raised his voice had to yell for her to shut up, and that made it all the more frightening. His secret was still locked away in her heart and she never wanted to see that kind of face again.

Now, two years later, she was face-to-face with a couple who seemed to upend all of her expectations. Did they truly believe that their job as adults was to help children? That may even be how they acted, but all Erika could see was how fundamentally broken she was. A Chiba by blood, she wasn't even allowed to use that name for much of her early life. It wasn't until she showed some basic proficiency with a sword that her own father started to even look at her and it took her older half brothers to make her feel at home. Why would she ever expect anything from strangers that she could not get from her own family?

Her vision was suddenly obscured and she wavered in her determination at the unexpected warmth of the tight embrace. She knew what it was, of course, but wondered if that was the first hug she had received from an actual adult in the last five years or so.

"Who hurt you like this?" Mrs. Hyoudou whispered in her ear, but all Erika could do was sob into her shoulder.


	4. Reunion arc - Chapter 4

Erika sat in the limo as it navigated the streets of Tokyo and held hands with Mizuki. It looked like she was comforting her friend, but in reality, she was drawing far more calm in the other direction. Mortifying, two crying fits in less than three hours. But how was she supposed to cope when the things she held as sacrosanct were simply not true here?

Abuse, mental and physical, and even violence, that she could understand and could deal with. After all, they had been her daily companions all of her life. In middle school from bullies who believed magicians were manufactured things meant to serve mankind, and at home from parents who simply didn't care except in how her presence would enhance their status and position.

In school, the situation gradually improved as those mistaken ideas were slowly educated away. At home, it improved slightly only when her older half-brothers began to take an interest in her as an individual rather than a cog in the Chiba machine.

Then came high school with its silent, lifeless classrooms of computer-based training and self-led education. In the first two months of school here in this Japan she'd had more interaction with adults than during almost two years of Magic High School.

Yet how was she supposed to deal with adults who genuinely wanted nothing more than to help her for no reason other than she was a child who needed it? She frowned. She wasn't really a child, not any more, but her upbringing made her highly dependent on a family structure that encouraged violence as a solution to almost every situation. In her mind, even working off stress required ritualized violence in the dojo with her half-brothers.

Mizuki, on the other hand, had been raised in a normal household so far away from magic that it engendered shock and dismay when her special eyes first manifested. To her, these two people were nothing special. Not for the first time Erika thought about how fundamentally damaged magicians in her world were. She snorted. Their old school boasted first-class councillors, but what it really needed was full-time psychologists.

Special eyes. There was something there she should remember. Focus, Erika, she chided herself. When she glanced over at her friend, Mizuki was giving the driver and passenger in the front an askance look full of confusion.

Then it came to her. Mizuki must have realized something about the pair riding in the front, but there was no real opportunity to discuss it with her, not in the open like that.

"I'm alright now," she said, wiping her eyes with her free hand. "Sorry about that."

"Everybody needs a good cry now and then," Mrs. Hyoudou said with a smile and such kindness in her voice that Erika wanted to start all over again. "But you know, Erika-chan, children aren't meant to handle everything on their own. I'm sorry to put it in such blunt words, especially if it somehow reflects on your own family, but anyone who thinks they can is a fool. There are child labour laws for a reason, marriage age, military age, and the like. I realize things don't always work out the way they are intended, and sometimes obsolete ancient traditions get in the way, but that just means we have to try harder.

"Our own son, too, I wish he had confided in us from the beginning rather than carrying that burden all by himself. If we had been stronger and smarter as parents, maybe it could have been avoided. It's too late now, of course, though I understand why he couldn't." Erika heard them mention their son before, but the way they spoke now made it seem like he had died. "He's enjoying his current life, it seems, despite the danger." She shuddered and took comfort in her husband's arms. "Every time I think of it, I get cold all over."

"Danger?" Mizuki asked, looking perplexed. "Is your son in the military?"

As a third-year student at their new school, he would certainly be age-qualified, and it wouldn't be without precedent to press much younger children into service. In their own world, she had been forced to keep secret that one of their friends, at age 16, was already a member of the JSDF and mobilized to aid in the defence of Yokohama during their first year of Magic High. Now that she thought about it, she remembered how familiar he and his commanding officer sound when they spoke to each other, like they had known each other for years.

Despite all the high-sounding speeches from politicians, magicians had no rights and everyone knew this. But, was it really too much to ask for _children_ to grow up and choose their path later in life? She knew the reason, of course: population difference. Literally across the Sea of Japan was a nation with three-quarters of a billion people, and the only way to compete with that monster was to churn out as many magicians as possible—hence the encouragement to marry young—and train their offspring as fast as possible, even if that led to lapses in safety.

Hence Course 1—the main student body—and Course 2—the weaker replacements if any Course 1 students suffered career-ending accidents.

That thought gave her pause as she had never actually took the time to consider this implicit idea in the Course 1/Course 2 design. " _career-ending accidents_ " In high school, during training, in a country desperately starved for magicians. Truly, they had no rights at all.

The two adults exchanged a glance and their kind though slightly off-key laughter dragged Erika back to the present.

"Not really," Mr. Hyoudou replied for his wife, "but I suppose from a certain point of view, there's some truth to that."

Some truth? He either was or he wasn't, as far as Erika was concerned.

"From what I've seen so far," he went on, "I think he's in the same boat as the two of you, puzzling his way through a world he doesn't entirely understand yet. You _are_ both magicians, isn't that right?"

"Whether we say yes or no," Erika said, "what do you intend to do?"

"Nothing. I just thought it might make conversation easier. We know most of it anyway from your friend Yoshida-kun. We thought it was all just fiction—TV, movies, books—but then those girls started moving in, one after another."

"What, by using magic?" Erika asked, giving the female driver with the silver hair and male passenger in the front seat a hard look. Neither was Japanese, and her personal experience made her suspicious of foreigners, especially those like them who radiated that feeling of emptiness.

 _Aren't I a foreigner here, too? This is Japan, but not_ my _Japan._

Mrs. Hyoudou followed her eyes and smiled. "You don't need to worry about them. But to answer your question, no it wasn't magic. It came as something of a surprise, but many girls began gathering around our son, and eventually they all started to move in due to various excuses and reasons. We were so obsessed with having grandchildren that we didn't question anything, but we learned quite recently that they all represent _power_ , of one type or another. Together with your friends, they attend Kuoh Academy. Two have already graduated and moved on to university, our son and several of his friends will graduate at the end of this school year, and some will be entering their 2nd and 3rd years around the same time."

Their son had girls with romantic intentions toward him in their 1st year of high school—perhaps even younger—and his parents let them move in with their son? That was even more bizarre than the magicians in her world encouraged in the strongest terms to marry and produce children before their twentieth year.

"And you're okay with knowing about magicians and this _power_ you're talking about? You must be the most accepting people I have ever known."

"Well, we survived learning about our son," Mr. Hyoudou replied with a smile, "so finding out there was more than one type of weirdness didn't really come as that much of a shock. The whole world is reeling from the events of half a year ago and your situation doesn't even rate in the top ten, believe me." His voice suddenly turned bitter. "We had to stand there and watch as our son, who was not even eighteen years of age, went out to fight an entity of such power it might as well be called a cosmic abomination."

"I damn well _knew_ it," Erika muttered. "They don't have magic here, but they've got aliens galore."

Mizuki squeezed her hand again and then took off her glasses, looking without flinching at the couple sitting across from them. When she happened to glance at the driver and her companion, she winced and turned her head away.

"I get it, it makes sense now."

"Mizuki, what are you doing?" Erika demanded in exasperation. "Put them back on right now."

"No, looking at them doesn't hurt—it never did—but their pattern, I remember it. Your son must be the red dragon we saw in Tokyo half a year ago, but how is that possible?"

Her head whipped around in surprise and Erika studied the two adults. They seemed to hold each other even tighter. Was it fear? No, it was _memories_ , not all of them good.

"Our son, Issei, they call him the Red Dragon Emperor," Mrs. Hyoudou replied after a moment. "Well, he has a few other nicknames, but they're too embarrassing to mention. At school, only members of the Student Council and the Occult Research Club know of this, so be careful. When he was getting ready to fight that thing, all the members of his club were right there with him, gearing up for a war we didn't even know was going on. Bloody hell, they're all _children_ , no matter what else they may be."

That's one hell of an ostentatious name, Erika thought, especially for a kid in his third year of high school. How does he keep it a secret? Having come from a family immersed in Japan's magic community, she was not unfamiliar with grandiose titles, but what the Hyoudous were talking about were titles seemingly assigned to power at an early age, forcing that individual to try and live up to such immense expectations. Somehow that seemed worse than how her own world handled it. Well, that was certainly a relief.

"If it's such a big secret, why tell us?"

"Because you'll find out eventually. Your friends all know about him, and he knows about them, as well as the two of you. There seems to be an understanding between your group and his. Also, he asked us to tell you if an opportunity arose. But what about you? Won't you tell us who you really are?"

Trust. Is this what it was about? Erika had trust issues in general, and especially toward adults. Was it time to set all that aside and learn new tricks? More importantly, was there any threat in letting them know? Mikihiko said they could be trust, and they seemed to be already aware of so much.

She straightened in her seat.

"I am Erika Chiba of the Hundred Families, a House in support of the Ten Master Clans of Japan. Until a year ago, I was a Year 2 Course 2 student at Magic First High of Tokyo. It's kinda hard to explain the difference between Course 1 and 2, but in essence the latter is for kids with weaker skills."

"And I am Mizuki Shibata. Like Erika, I was first a Course 2 student at the same school, but later changed to Course 3, which concentrated on magic engineering. We're both pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," Mirs. Hyoudou said, inclining her head as she returned the greeting. "We are Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou of Kuoh Town. Our son Issei is a 3rd Year student at Kuoh Academy, and he is known to some as the Red Dragon Emperor. Also, he has recently become a High Class Devil."

Erika choked and hurriedly pulled a water bottle from inside the armrest. While Mizuki patted her on the back, she tried to get her breathing back under control. The pair in the front, the driver and passenger, twitched as though they were laughing, but the adults didn't seem to pay them any attention. Instead, they concentrated on the two girls in front of them.

"I'm sorry," Erika said, still hacking. "What was that last thing you said?"

Mr. Hyoudou ran a trembling hand through his hair and exchanged a glance with his wife.

"We only learned the whole story half a year ago, just before that attack," he said, his eyes far away. "Some men broke into our house, assaulted a girl we have living with us, and kidnapped us. For us, it came completely out of the blue, but we found later that our son's group had been fighting with them for a while. They just didn't expect for our family to be targeted that way."

Erika was entranced by the story that poured out of them in a rush. It seemed that, once they found a captive audience, they just couldn't stop talking. In a way, she thought with insight that surprised even her, they must have felt very lonely, bottling up a story with no one to talk to.

Not that she believed them, but adults falling into these kinds of delusions were quite rare in her world. There magic was everywhere and most popular entertainment revolved around it, sometimes staying true to its actual nature but more often than not, inventing all kinds of absurdities. Here, on the other hand, was a world supposedly free of magic and it gave rise to all kinds of fantastical settings.

But did the woman really just say her son had become a devil? Erika had met demons, fought against them, killed several by her own hand. Hell, one of her friends at school received a profession of love from one. They weren't really people or high school students, but the unexpected result of a crazy American experiment in magic, parasites drawn into the world through a weakened dimensional wall and shocked into life by strong human emotion.

Yet the more they talked, the more she was beginning to sense that it wasn't so much a story they believed as one that was entirely too real, and it disturbed them a great deal.

There was something there, a possible explanation for how they ended up in this world, yet it eluded her. Erika had no real grounding in science apart from the basics needed to understand how magic worked. She didn't know how to take an idea and develop it, but she knew someone who might.

Mrs. Hyoudou took over the story for her husband.

"We had no idea who they were or what they wanted, but they didn't hurt us. They didn't even touch us. It turned out that they were far more interested in the one who they expected to come to our rescue."

"Who is that?" Mizuki had remained silent this entire time, but when Mrs. Hyoudou paused, she felt the need to ask the expected question.

"Our son. They were telling us all sorts of wild stories about him, what he was, what he had become. We didn't believe it, of course, but I think somewhere deep inside we knew that no matter how preposterous the stories were, they _had_ to be true. Our house was a dead giveaway, if only we had paid attention."

"Your… _house_?" Mizuki shared a confused glance with Erika.

Mr. Hyoudou nodded. "It happened about a year before the attack." A lot of their stories seemed to start around that time; it must have been a busy time for them. "I think we mentioned this before, but one thing led to another and we ended up with a house full of girls. Anyway, it was cramped and they had to share rooms, and of course we had just the one bath. For a short while, it didn't matter. They were all on excellent terms with each other and, surprisingly, our son as well.

"Then we woke up one morning and found the house had been completely renovated literally overnight, somehow turning into a six-level mansion with three basements and land to match. It absorbed the land and houses around us, and those neighbours left. We were overjoyed by all that extra room, of course, not to mention a house full of brand new amenities, but I think we should have taken a more realistic look at the situation.

"The Gremory family really is absurdly rich and powerful, and sometimes I can't help but think they did something that kept us from questioning things that were glaringly obvious. But, they've been good to our son, so we can't really do anything that would ruin his future. Besides, they've unexpectedly fulfilled a wish of ours.

"In any case, those two men were telling us all sorts of wild stories about our son and the girls living with us. We couldn't understand it. Our son wasn't even 18, so why would grown men hate him this much? Then, despite our protests, Issei actually appeared with a girl in his arms, Asia. We knew her, too, as she was the first one to move in with us."

Erika sat back in her seat and listened as they spoke of impossible events. Their son was forced to turn into a dragon in front of them, though they still recognized through his mannerisms. There was a massive fight, one of the two kidnappers was beaten and ran away. This particular event was described with quiet pride in their voices, but the second part of it where the other man peacefully surrendered to their son was told with puzzlement, hers and theirs. Why he would do so to a boy whose parents he helped to brutalize Erika had no idea. The Hyoudous apparently didn't, either.

The thing that caught both hers and Mizuki's attention was mention of a dragon-shaped red armour their son wore. Listening to this story was like being at a cosplay convention gone horribly wrong. It's unbelievable, but there might be nudity and you can't just leave until you learn how it ended. In her life, she had never heard of fantasy like this and found herself strangely drawn into the story.

As the pair continued speaking, she wondered suddenly if Mikihiko was aware of what was being discussed. He had apparently told these people all of their secrets, but did he know of this?

"We still don't know why they did what they did, but the end of it, the other man had no more will to fight or resist as he had already accomplished his goal."

"Which was what?"

"That's the other thing we don't know," Mr. Hyoudou said. "He spoke with our son, but we couldn't hear them." He burst out laughing all of a sudden. Erika and Mizuki stared at him as though he'd gone mad. "Then my wife slapped him across the face really hard. I've never been so proud."

His wife's face turned completely red and she punched her husband's arm.

"You didn't have to tell them that. Anyway, after it was all over, that _thing_ awoke and our son ended up fighting it. We literally found out the whole truth about our son's real life just about half a year ago."

"Was all this going on since he was born?" Erika asked.

The story seemed preposterous to her, yet Mizuki saw the same spiritual pattern on them as on that red dragon the day of the attack. If there was one thing she knew she could rely on, it was her friend's eyes.

"No, not at all. It seems that it started for our son about three months into his 2nd year at school. So, about a year and a half ago."

"But there is nothing about anything like this on the news!" Erika exclaimed. "Not about devils or dragons or magic or anything. The only thing they talk about is that thing that attacked six months ago, and even that's winding down."

"Well, naturally. People aren't supposed to know. Some, like us, find out, while others are born into families related to these supernatural communities. The majority, though, even if they believe in one holy scripture or another, don't really have any evidence. How would any religious group behave if they learned that their one true god happened to be not all that unique like they thought?"

Was that really some to worry about, Erika wondered. No matter what, humans will always find something to fight about.

"But you've told us that entire story in front of the driver," she said, giving the pair in front a hard look.

"They're both part of our son's group," Mrs. Hyoudou said. "I'll do full introductions once we get to the house."

The young woman driving raised her right hand and waved in greeting.

Part of their son's group… So that meant they were either magicians themselves or… Erika didn't really want to think about that and pulled herself up short.

Looking out through the windows, she could they were merging onto a raised highway. Traffic was heavy, but the driver operated the limo into its lane with practised ease. Erika exchanged a puzzled glance with Mizuki. In their world, such distance transportation would be done with small two-seater vehicles in autopilot mode. The cars currently surrounding them were a stark reminder that they weren't at home. The large multi-passenger vehicles were driven manually and for the most part completely empty apart from the driver.

Such waste was unheard of in their time.

They rode in silence after that, lulled by the hypnotic sound of rubber rolling on asphalt. To keep herself from succumbing to it, Erika tightened her grip on her police baton, but Mizuki laid her head on her shoulder and dozed off. It seemed that Mrs. Hyoudou was in no better condition and lightly slept on her husband's shoulder.

He exchanged a rueful look with Erika, but said nothing. Perhaps discussing their son's situation was as tiring for them as it was for the two girls to listen to. She looked out of the window and watched as the strangely primitive but still oddly familiar city passed them by.

They were almost two hours on the road before taking an offramp. Large urban city gave way to the countryside which, in time, gave way to… Damn, Hosokawa-sensei was right when said that Kuoh Town was like a smaller Tokyo. They drove through the streets filled with cars and people, but it wasn't as stifling as in Tokyo. Traffic, both pedestrian and automotive, was much lighter and there seemed to be room to breathe. Hell, there were even two streets full of electronics stores, though of course it was nowhere near the extravagance of Akihabara.

They continued on for another fifteen minutes through several residential districts before passing through a gate.

"We've arrived," the driver finally announced from the front when the limo come to a stop and the passenger threw open the door and jumped out.

A moment later he opened the rear door for the Hyoudous to climb out, followed close on their heels by Erika and Mizuki. They stood in a clean and spacious courtyard that led to the entrance of a six-storey mansion. Outside on the street past the gate were regular-looking middle-class houses. How was that even allowed? Didn't Kuou Town have zoning laws? Erika tilted her head back to look up to the top of the house. Was that a recreational area up there, not to mention a garden?

"Is this Kuoh Academy?" Mizuki asked in a small voice, but Erika shook her head.

"I don't think so. Remember, Hosokawa-sensei told us it had primary all the way through high school and university, but this place is too small for that, not to mention dead silent."

As the driver climbed out of the limo and went to speak with the Hyoudous, the boy pulled out the two moving boxes from the trunk and set them on the ground near the entrance. In all of the rush, Erika had only been barely introduced to the pair and she couldn't even remember their names. Mrs. Hyoudou called the two girls over.

"Erika-chan, Mizuki-chan, I'd like to make formal introductions," she said.

Erika looked them over as she and Mizuki approached. The woman was young, probably not much older than Erika herself, and foreign-looking with long silver hair she had never seen on a human being before. The boy, too, was around her age and didn't appear Japanese, with the kind of good looks and polite manners to make any girl fall for him.

"This is Rossweisse-san and Kiba Yuuto-san," Mrs. Hyoudou said, indicating the pair. "And this is Erika Chiba-san and Mizuki Shibata-san. I should've done this properly back in Tokyo, but there wasn't a lot of time left."

Erika and Mizuki bowed.

"I'm very pleased to meet you both," Erika said. "Thank you for driving us."

"Pleased to meet you," Mizuki said.

The other pair bowed in response.

"Likewise," the boy replied. "Chiba-san, Shibata-san, I'm sure we will see each other in school quite often. I'm a 3rd year at Kuoh Academy."

"Yes, I'm sure," Erika said, "but please call me Erika."

"And me Mizuki."

"You can call me Kiba."

"Just call me Rossweisse," the silver-haired woman said with a smile that seemed to light up her whole face. "When the time comes, I'll accompany both of you to school and introduce you to the staff and your new class. Your homeroom teacher is an easy guy to get along with and the class isn't known for troublemakers, so you shouldn't have any problems." Erika stared at her in silence. This young woman worked at the school? "Anyway, if you are ever interested in learning about shopping deals or where the best discount stores are, let me know. I'll give you a tour. Anyway, goodbye for now and we'll see each other again in a few hours at the house after you've had a chance to meet with all of your friends."

With that and a cheerful goodbye from Kiba Yuuto, the pair piled back into the limo and drove off.

Mr. Hyoudou suddenly burst out laughing. "I swear, that girl. I've lived in this town all of my life, but she's learned more about the local 100-yen stores in the last year than I've known all of my life. Still, she really does know where to get all the best deals."

"Our friends—" Erika began, watching the limo go through the gate and disappear around the corner.

"Kuoh Academy is within walking distance," Mrs. Hyoudou said, "so they all just walk here when they have a gathering, which is at least once a week. Rossweisse-san said she would hold on to the limo and drive them all here as their classes let out."

Gathering, eh? So they've maintained the tradition that started their first day of First High. That somehow made her Erika feel like she had finally come home. Daily after school they would meet at one specific cafe, a cycle they repeated day after day to the point where they almost had reserved seats. It was a chance to unwind, to catch up on all the latest gossip and what was happening with their various clubs. Disciplinary Committee activities and Student Council work were both big parts of the discussion.

For Erika, these human interacts were what made her school days tolerable.

Mizuki looked like she wanted to ask another question, but then the door to the house slammed open with a bang and a young woman rushed out, black hair streaked with white flying. She looked to be a few years older than Erika and wore a long frilly one-piece Gothic lolita black dress and a hood with a cut-out in the chest area. Erika glared at her, simultaneously envious and disturbed. Her breasts were bare—and that couldn't have been an accident or an oversight, given the complexity of the outfit—with only her nipples covered up by black duct tape pasties, of all things.

It was one hell of a cosplay outfit that left little to the imagination, though she had no idea what character it was supposed to represent. She had to wonder, though, if it was really appropriate for a staid home like this? In her old world, such an outfit would have been a scandalous display, one that would no doubt get her arrested for public indecency, if nothing else. Aggressive public sensuality of this kind was unheard-of.

Not to mention that she was stacked as hell. She covered her face with one hand. Why oh why couldn't this subtly beautiful but in a strange way menacing woman have been flat like a stereotypical Asian?

The sudden change in atmosphere precipitated by the unexpected appearance of a woman neither girl had any reason to expect didn't throw just Erika for a loop. Mizuki turned bright red in the face and, as though watching a train wreck in progress, was completely unable to look away. Since coming to this world, they both had to get used to the fact that nobody, especially young women, had any sense of decorum. Thankfully the school uniforms they'd had to wear up until then were not as scandalous as the general public behaviour suggested, but they were still too much for the two of them. It remained to be seen what the uniforms at Kuoh Academy would look like.

"I appear!" the young woman deadpanned and threw her arms around Mrs. Hyoudou's neck. Then she repeated the motion with Mr. Hyoudou, and in both cases, Erika thought she looked unfamiliar with giving people hugs and was trying out something new. Unlike his wife, Mr. Hyoudou didn't seem to know how to handle that kind of greeting.

"It's good to see you, too," the older woman said with a strangling voice that Erika realized was just mostly a failed attempt at stifling her laughter.

Finally releasing the suffering Mr. Hyoudou, she looked at his wife with a clear question in her eyes. She even tilted her head to the side in a clear question. "Is this them?"

"Yes, they are Erika-san and Mizuki-san. Now, don't be impolite and greet them."

With a nod and her hands clasped in front of her chest, which only served to accentuate her bosom, she turned to the two girls and bowed.

"I Orphis, the Infinite Dragon God. Pleased to meet you."

Erika's eyes goggled and Mizuki did a doubletake.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ _Hello, and thanks for reading. Yes, I am using_ that _spelling. And no, I am not even sorry._


	5. Reunion Arc - Chapter 5

"I Orphis, the Infinite Dragon God," the bizarrely dressed young woman declaimed. "Pleased to meet you."

"We're pleased to—" Running entirely on automatic, both Erika and Mizuki bowed in response and returned the greeting, but froze halfway through. What they just heard… That… couldn't have been right, could it? "Er, what did you just say?"

Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou were both shaking their heads in amazement, and then another voice spoke from the doorway.

"Orphis-chan, you shouldn't say that to people you just met, nyah." Playful and throaty, it was deeper and almost adult in its intonations.

A woman stood in the doorway, older than any of them save for Mrs. Hyoudou, with long black hair cascading down over her shoulders and down her back. She wore nothing but panties, a bra, a negligee, and for some reason high heel shoes. More so than the Gothic Lolita cosplayer still standing in front of them, she looked so top-heavy she shouldn't be able to stand up straight. Did she have her spine surgically reinforced? Maybe it was just a steel spike where the—

With a slap, she pulled her thoughts up as a throbbing pain burned in her left eyeball. A walking public indecency was what she was. How was she even allowed outdoors? Still, there was one more unbelievable thing. _And s_ _he ends her sentences with 'nyah'?_

Mr. Hyoudou muttered something noncommittal, turned and went into the house through another door. His wife watched him go in silence and then turned to the newcomer.

"Kuroka-san, we've asked you not to dress like that in public."

"But the sun was really warm on the floor," she returned an impudent reply. "I just woke up as you arrived and quickly threw all this on, nyah."

She slept naked on the floor and just admitted it like that? Mizuki finally reached her limit and, with a sigh, toppled over onto Erika's shoulder who barely managed to hold her up.

"But I understand." She turned and bowed to the two girls. "I'm Kuroka, and we'll get to know each other better later." Grabbing the cosplayer by the hand, she started dragging her back into the house. "Orphis-chan, let's go play dress-up. Akeno-chan has lots of interesting costumes in her room, nyah."

"Bye bye!" Orphis sang out as she disappeared into the house.

And just like that, the pair disappeared into the house, leaving the two dumbfounded girls alone in the courtyard with Mrs. Hyoudou. It was only when the over-lush woman's back was turned to them that Erika noticed a pair of black tails that swished back and forth as she walked away. Now _that_ was taking costumes to a whole new level of weird. She sat Mizuki on the ground and massaged her hand while fanning her face with the other hand.

"That bad cat," Mrs. Hyoudou muttered with a disbelieving shake of her head, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. It seemed she was more exasperated than angry. "She didn't even bring your boxes inside."

Because _that_ was the thing that she should be concerned about.

"Mrs. Hyoudou, is there some sort of cosplaying convention in town?" Erika asked, unable to keep quiet any longer. That had to be the only likely explanation. Mizuki started coming around then and she helped her friend regain her feet. "Before, you were asking who we are, but I didn't mention that, in our world, it's unheard-of to dress like that."

She realized only after the words were out of her mouth that she had forgotten to open her senses the way she had done with their drivers. She might have gotten some sort of confirmation, or at least an idea of what she was dealing with. The only excuse she could give herself was being distracted by giant breasts suddenly thrust in her face.

 _Seriously, who does that?_ But it was also true that it was not an excuse she thought she would ever have to use.

Mizuki suddenly struggled against Erika's hold, pumped her fist in the air, and yelled, "I support them!" Then she slumped back against Erika's shoulder and offered no more resistance.

"Sorry about her," Erika said with a grin, "but she sometimes blurts out ridiculous things when faced with these kinds of situations."

The woman laughed, but not unkindly. "No, don't worry about it. It just takes some getting used to. When Kuroka first moved in, she was rude, inconsiderate, drank milk straight out of a carton from the fridge and wouldn't tell anyone when she finished it, and spent more time playing our son's video games than he did. Well, I guess she still is all these things, but she's become a part of our strange little family. If you decide to home-stay here with us, after a few days, you won't even notice it any more."

"But, then, what did that other one mean by calling herself a dragon god?"

"Oh, you mean Orphis-chan? I don't know the whole story, but you can ask my son when you see him. For now, let's go in and get you situated. It looks like Mizuki-chan is still about to keel right over."

Mrs. Hyoudou led the way through the door and into the house.

As she followed and half-led, half-pushed Mizuki, Erika considered the last few minutes. There was no way the woman hadn't seen that tail, tracing patterns in the air and emphasizing its own points. She didn't say anything, though, and Erika didn't want to ask, afraid that if she pressed for an answer, she might get one and she didn't think she was ready for another bout of weirdness. Not today. With disgust, she shook her head and wondered how a morning that started out so relatively normal suddenly devolve into this freak show.

But an idea churned in her mind, looking for something latch on to. Magic or not, there were other things here that were even harder to explain. That pair who drove them had no record in the Information Dimension and exuded a strange kind of pressure on her mind when she opened herself up to it. Not dangerous and not threatening, but it was definitely there.

A woman wearing a fetishized version of a Gothic Lolita outfit—and damn it, Erika needed a spell to make herself forget that—and calling herself a god as though it were the most natural thing in the world. But that wasn't the problem. The introduction came on the heels of an unlikely story about devils and wayward children, so it could be taken as part of some strange role-playing prevalent in this household. Very, _very_ strange role-playing. No, the problem was the mild scolding she received immediately after, not for fibbing in front of strangers, but apparently for telling the truth.

And then, of course, was that older woman with the tail. If that was a cosplay item, it could be the start of an industry more valuable than inkjet ink.

That six-headed monstrosity certainly came to mind as well, as did the red dragon. Was that story about devils and battles and kidnappings really that much stranger? In her own world, just a century before, if you told people that in a few short years, countries would race each other to harness magic as a weapon of mass destruction, you would probably be thrown into an institution with white rooms and medications.

Erika was on the verge of reconsidering what she thought _strange_ , but one thing stood out in stark relief. _This world was not normal_.

In light of all this, she would need to discuss their new situation with Mizuki.

Once inside the house, she stopped and looked around. To her surprise and mild disappointment, contrary to the expectation set by the greetings outside, the vestibule and the rest of the house looked entirely normal, if a little extravagant. The entrance was three times larger than her own home and seemed to have far too many staircases and wow that's an elevator. Still, the good news was that there were no monsters lying in wait or dragons flying through the air and—best of all—no half-naked women with verbal ticks threw their breasts in her face.

Given how this whole day progressed, she felt perversely let down by the prosaic appearance of the interior. With Mizuki partially revived, Mrs. Hyoudou showed them to the kitchen where they found a pot of miso soup happily simmering away. She sniffed at it and smiled, then turned off the stove.

"It's a daily miso soup war here," she said with a smile while pouring out the soup and scooping rice from a cooker, "with the girls vying for supremacy." She brought it over to the table and set it in front of Erika and Mizuki. "They all think they need to compete with me, but the truth is they've long ago far surpassed my abilities. Do you know how many recipes I had to look up on the Web just to keep up with them all? Well, most of them, I suppose. At least two aren't allowed anywhere near a stove as they somehow managed to explode a pot of boiling water. Anyway, with a single visit a few months back, that boy Yuuto tossed in a well-aimed grenade and threw all the girls into a panic. Go ahead and enjoy; he really does make the best soup I've ever tried."

Until that moment, Erika didn't realize how famished she was and the now mostly revived Mizuki seemed to feel the same way. For the next half an hour, the only sounds in the kitchen were those of three people eating.

After they were done and the dishes put away in the dishwasher, one of several she could immediately see, Erika finally broached the subject that had been bothering her for some time now. The cleanup was by hand, with no sign of a home automation robot that were so common in her world.

"Mrs. Hyoudou, what's really going on in this house? How many people actually live here?"

The older woman started the wash cycle and then sat on a chair. "Honestly, it's a war zone here sometimes, and it feels like our son's been bringing home stray kittens." She laughed. "In the case of two of those girls, that's literally true." Erika exchanged a confused look with Mizuki, but as their hostess was continuing, there was no chance to say anything. "Anyway, first Asia moved in. We were worried because our son is something of a pervert, but—" She blushed and looked away. "—we were convinced with one reason or another. She had no place to live, we were told, but we didn't even ask how an Italian teenage girl ended up homeless in Japan.

"A month later, Rias decided she wanted to live here, too. She was the one who convinced us originally regarding Asia, and the two of them started a tug-of-war over our son. It was so cute, in a way, and they didn't even seem to realize that we could see everything. So that's two right there. After a couple of months, we met her brother and father, though of course at the time we had no idea who they really were." Erika's ears perked up at that as she sensed the tip of a far deeper story. Given earlier discussions, she wondered if they might be of the Gremory family, but didn't really want to ask. Mrs. Hyoudou continued with her explanation, providing the confirmation she hadn't even asked for. "They asked if we wouldn't mind taking in a few other girls, though they didn't specify which ones, and offered to defray any expenses of running such an extended household. For a large and wealthy family like the Gremory to take an interest in our son, who until then showed no real ambition about his future... Well, we couldn't say no.

"Almost immediately after that, all the other girls of the school club Issei belongs to moved in. That would be Akeno, Xenovia, and Koneko. They all help out around the house, and only Xenovia was eventually forbidden from touching the stove." Mrs. Hyoudou laughed. "I think I mentioned earlier that she somehow managed to blow up a pot of nothing but boiling water. So that's five.

"Then our house was unexpectedly remodelled into this mansion and the Gremory family sent my husband and I on an all-expenses-paid vacation around the world for about a month. They _said_ as thanks for helping to take care of those girls, but I think they wanted us out of the way while the kids were off doing something." She shrugged, seemingly dismissing the idea. "When we returned, we found Irina, whom we knew from long ago, and Rossweisse already living here. So that's seven. Eventually, Orphis, Ravel, Kuroka, and Le Fay moved in, as well, and now there's eleven. Most recently, Lilith and Kunou joined our little family. Wait, I'm forgetting someone… Ah, that's right. Elmenhilde will be moving in soon, too."

"But where are all these girls coming from?" Mizuki asked, a perplexed frown on her face. It was a question Erika wanted answered to. "Forgive me, but none of their names sound Japanese."

Mrs. Hyoudou smiled at the confused expression on Erika and Mizuki's faces.

"From various factions around the world. I could tell you more, but I think it would be better if you heard it from them, or even from your own friends."

Erika thought it was a strange time to suddenly become reticent since the woman had been pretty much spilling all of her son's secrets, and not just her son's. Why was it so critical for them to know all this before even meeting anybody? Unless, of course, she was just delusional or mentally ill.

"Does everyone who transfer into Kuoh Academy know all this?" she asked.

"Of course not," the woman replied with a shake of her head. "Most have no idea, and rightfully so, but there are exceptions."

"Exceptions…" Erika muttered as her thoughts tumbled and then grasped on the only possible explanation. "You mean, apart from us and our friends, there are others who know?"

Impossible, especially given the way those two women acted earlier. How did they keep any secrets, from the student body and others, throwing their breasts into everyone's faces? That gave her pause. She really needed to stop thinking about that and gave herself a mental slap.

"You're exactly right, but my husband said earlier, didn't he? Your situation is weird, it's true, but given everything else that's going on in the world, it's just another shade of weird. Think of it this way. There are three types of students at Kuoh." She lifted up one finger. "One, perfectly normal children with no unusual characteristics. Although it's true that there has been much speculation in the media and the Internet about the events of half a year ago, and some of them have come pretty close to the truth, the regular kids don't know anything apart from their school life." She raised a second finger. "Two, those who represent some sort of extraordinary power and their servants, all of whom are students, as well. And by 'students', I mean that they are not there just to kill time; they are expected to do well." A third finger went up. "And finally, kids like you who come from special backgrounds. I'm told there are quite a few in the Primary and Middle divisions, a trend that's only accelerated since that incident."

"But—"

Mrs. Hyoudou smiled at the uncomprehending expression on Erika's and Mizuki's faces. "I know, I felt the same way, though I guess it makes sense if you think about it."

"What do you mean, Mrs. Hyoudou?" Mizuki managed to ask, her voice unsteady. Obviously, she was still dealing with the mental trauma of meeting those two women.

"Earth may be a world dominated by humanity, but as it turns out, we're not alone. _They_ live here, too, and I don't mean just this house. To continue this peaceful coexistence, it's necessary to behave in ways that don't spawn legends of them disembowelling children at night. It seems that it took them a long time to understand that, but they think that the best way to accomplish that is to raise their children in the same environment as humans."

"It's just too much to take," Mizuki said, her voice still a bit vague. "I mean, we're from a world where all of these legends of Western monsters and Japanese Yokai and such are just that, stories started by magic practitioners thousands of years in the past. Remember, Erika? Mikihiko-kun explained it during that trouble with Ancient Magicians."

Erika had been thinking the same thing. She found the parallels between the two worlds to be disturbing to say the least, but the differences were even more profound. Still, there was something else to consider.

"I remember," she said, "but I guess I'm more worried by the vast similarities. Up until the discovery of magic in the late 1990s, the histories of our two worlds were basically the same, but then they began to diverge. In the early 21st century, global cooling started, but here you have global _warming_. We had rising tensions across the world due to food and energy production problems, which culminated in World War III with its catastrophic loss of life, while in this world there was nothing until half a year ago, at least nothing that anybody noticed. As far as I know, there is no counterpart in our world to that six-headed monstrosity. But what I find even odder is that our religions and cultures are exactly the same. It's like—"

Suddenly revived, Mizuki snapped her fingers in realization. "Could our two worlds be linked somehow?"

"I guess it's possible," Erika conceded, "and maybe not even just our two world. Those Parasites had to have come from somewhere, after all. I have no idea how, who, or what, but maybe there's something out there passing our dreams around."

"Our dreams?"

"Something like that. Somebody here dreams of something, it doesn't even have to be about anything true or all that smart, and somehow people in our world get that message. They may even think it came from them. But you know, it's more than names of monsters or religions. Even the geography here is identical to ours, continents, countries, languages." She considered that, tapping her fingers against her chin. "A parallel world, then, with certain divergences. It's all conjecture, of course, and don't ask me to explain any details."

"We came here, but do you think it can work in the other direction?" Mizuki asked.

Can we go home? That was the gist of her friend's question. But, not only did Erika not have an answer to that question, she wasn't even sure she wanted to return. What was waiting for her on the other side? Friends, family, a sword that felt like an extension of her body.

A life of being a humanoid weapon, with no consideration for her individuality.

"Well, this is a world with six-headed beasts that breathe fire on whole countries, so I guess anything could happen." She turned to their hostess who was watching them with unreadable eyes. "Mrs. Hyoudou, how did all this start? I mean, what prompted all these girls to start moving in?"

"Hmm. Before I can answer that, you have to understand something. When our son Issei was born, it was like a miracle. We had tried for ten years, and he was our last chance to have a child. My husband and I, we treasure every moment of our lives and every memory we share, but somewhere deep in our hearts, so deep we didn't even realize it at first, there was greed. It is said that devils grant humans their wishes, but for a price, and in the process fan the flames of their greed. Despite the wonderful life we had, we craved a bigger family, one with daughters. We love our son very much, but we weren't satisfied and wanted girls in our house, too. I guess the devils granted us our heart's desire, even if we didn't realize that's what they were doing."

Erika stared at their hostess. That didn't entirely answer her question, or even at all, but she was being entirely sincere, she could feel that. But who was crazy here? Exchanging a troubled look with Mizuki, Erika couldn't decide what was possible or impossible. After all, no matter how preposterous the story was, magic in her own world was also preposterous, as were the magic parasites from another world she had once fought. Besides, their presence in this Japan was evidence that outrageous things were possible and existed, like that thing six months before.

"And what was the price you had to pay for it?" she asked, thinking that with how this house looked so far, it had to be a ton of cash.

"Knowledge of what the world is really like, and the fear that descends on us when our son so much as steps foot outside this house. But, to answer your actual question, I don't know exactly. Asia and Rias, I can sort of understand, but the reason the Gremory family wanted the others here, well, I don't really know. I suspect it has to do with our son, but I'm not sure."

With a sigh, she fell silent then and Erika wanted to take this opportunity to consider what they'd heard, but her friend had other ideas.

"Mrs. Hyoudou," Mizuki said, "can you tell us which of our friends attend Kuoh Academy? We've heard from Yoshida-kun, but no one's been saying names."

Erika was actually curious about that herself.

"Hmm, let's see. As I understand it, they arrived in three separate groups, but when my husband and I first met them, they were already together. Well, you know that Mikihiko is here, of course, and he arrived first with Leo, Kasumi, and Shizuku. Then came Tatsuya with his sister Miyuki and cousin Minami, and Honoka. Finally, Kasumi's twin sister Izumi arrived together with Kei."

That was… far more people than Erika had anticipated, but also found that finally hearing those names after a year of separation gave her a complex feeling. Then she leaned back in her chair with a huff. That was literally everyone close to her group of friends at school, plus a few extras. But, if she thought of it from another angle, then… No! That would mean that…

She buried her face in her hands, causing Mizuki to cry out in surprise and reach for her. As for Mrs. Hyoudou, she sat still in her chair, unsure of what was going on or how to react.

"Erika, what's wrong?" Mizuki asked. "Are you alright?"

"Mizuki," she said, "do you remember that day we left school grounds?"

"Eh? Vaguely, that was a year ago now, but what about it?"

"I think I just figured out how we got here," Erika replied, horrified at the idea her own mind just produced, "but it's so sick and twisted that…" She shuddered. "I don't think I can even think about this right now."

"Why don't you two shelve that discussion for now," Mrs. Hyoudou suggested, giving the two of them a knowing, if puzzled, look. "I've seen that expression before, on Issei, usually when he's got something on his mind and he intends to figure it out even if it kills him. Let me take you to your rooms so you can get some rest before your friends arrive in a few hours."

"I can't believe that after a whole year, our reunion is being delayed because nobody wanted to ditch school," Erika muttered, thankful for the change of topic. "Man, when did they become model students?"

Mrs. Hyoudou laughed. "Actually, Mikihiko wanted to, but Xenovia wouldn't let him."

"Xenovia, you say? She lives here, right, but why does she get to decide?"

"She's the student council president at Kuoh Academy," Mrs. Hyoudou replied. "I guess she takes her job seriously. Why don't we go upstairs? I'm sure you'll want to rest and wash up, not to mention discuss some things you wouldn't want to say in front of this old lady."

As their assigned rooms were on the fifth floor, Erika and Mizuki decided to take the elevator. Well, it was Erika who suggested it, but her friend went along with it without question. She wanted to see what it looked like and was not disappointed in its standard layout. Just stepping inside, there was no indication at all that belong to a house with that weird history. Apart from the slew of standard buttons for _Door Open_ , _Door Close_ , _Stop_ , and the like, there were the standard buttons 1 through 6, as well as _B1_ , _B2_ , and _B3_. Mrs. Hyoudou touched 5, the doors closed with a barely audible sigh, and the lift began to move, numbers rolling by indicating their current floor.

It came to a stop the same way it started, with a barely felt jolt. When the doors opened and they went out into the hall, the two girls were led down the corridor. Almost immediately they found a large corrugated cardboard box. It was even the same brand as the ones the two of them used to pack their belongings into. Mrs. Hyoudou marched right over to it and rapped her knuckles on the wall it stood again.

"Valerie-san, are you in there?"

Erika and Mizuki both stared. Despite everything they've heard and seen so far, that somebody would spend time inside a shipping box passed both of their wildest expectations.

When there was no answer, the older woman opened the top and glanced inside. Then she sighed and closed it again.

"I guess she'll be coming over later," she said after noticing her guests' gazes.

"Does Valerie…-san also stay at this house?" Mizuki asked, staring at the box.

Mrs. Hyoudou shook her head. "No, but she often visits with a friend who is a member of Issei's club."

"But why the box?"

"We've offered to give her a room, but she says it's soothing. Well, anyway, her friend started this trend and she just picked up the habit. I won't spoil the surprise for you for when you meet them. Your rooms are this way."

Through a door and down another corridor they walked, passing empty rooms until they came to one marked with familiar names. _Isumi & Kasumi_, it read.

"The Saegusa twins are staying with you?" Mizuki asked in some surprise.

"Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. They were too young to move into the residences available at the time, so we gave them a room here. I think they didn't want to at first, but now they've gotten used to it. In a way, this house protects all kinds of girls."

"But, surely, even with six floors, there isn't that much room here," Erika said.

"Oh, that wouldn't be a problem," Mrs. Hyoudou said with such assurance in her voice that it caught Erika by surprise. "Well, here we are."

Sure enough, one door was labelled _Erika_ , and across the hall, the other _Mizuki_. Erika yanked on the door knob without hesitation and opened the door. Inside was a room much like any other, only more spacious with a huge bed, a nightstand, a writing desk, a couch with two arm chairs, a dresser with a TV, and a closet. Windows on one wall were covered with drapes, and on the bed lay a dark brown dress. Probably, she thought, the school uniform. On the far side of the room was another door.

It was decorated with good taste, but it was just so—

"Now I understand why the twins are staying together in one room," she muttered.

Mizuki looked inside and paled.

"Eh? But this is—"

Though she didn't say it, Erika suspected she knew what her friend was thinking. Mizuki had come from a normal background and, while her family wasn't poor, they were at best middle class. This sort of thoughtless luxury would be too much for her. Even Erika, a daughter of the Chiba Family, a Modern Magic family widely known and respected throughout Japan and even a few neighbouring countries, had never had a private room larger than that bed she was looking at.

And they had just spent nearly a year sharing a tiny room. How were they supposed to just go to something like this?

"Mrs. Hyoudou, if Mizuki's room just like this one, can we just share a room?"

She looked at them with understanding eyes. "Is it too big for you? Isumi and Kasumi had the same reaction, too. I tried to argue after I found out about the layouts, but I don't think the Gremory family really understands how regular people live. I'll put a request in to change some furniture around, but in the meantime, why don't you just stay here for a few hours. You can decide what you want to do after you've met with your friends."

They agreed to that and Mrs. Hyoudou brought over some extra pillows from the other room.

"If you're wondering where that door leads," she said, pointing toward the far corner, "that's your private bathroom. Now, on the nightstand beside the bed, there is a telephone; all the rooms have one, and they are interconnected. Just pick it up and say the name of whoever you want to speak with; it'll connect you. Nagasawa-san and Fujioka-san wanted you to contact them when you've arrived, right? Just say, 'Outside,' into the phone and then the number. If you want any drinks or snacks, come to the kitchen." She gave the two girls a knowing looking. "And try to get some rest; reunions, especially after such a long time, are hard."

Then she turned and went back down the corridor the way they had come. It was only then that Erika realized they were never told exactly when their friends would arrive. The clock on the wall read 4pm, so they should already be here, or arrive soon. After all, Kuoh Academy was within walking distance, or so they were told.

When they finally alone, Mizuki turned to her friend, a perplexed frown on her face.

"Erika," she said slowly, "when those two women were introducing themselves, I'm a little vague on what I saw. So, um—?"

"Are you asking me if one of them called herself a dragon god and the other had a pair of tails growing out of her butt?"

"Phew." Mizuki patted herself on the chest in relief. "I thought I had hallucinated something."

"I wish you did. That god thing, well, we can chuck itup to a personal quirk, but the tails… Well, I just don't know. I guess it could be a mechanical cosplay contraption, but I don't really see how. Her manner of dress left nothing to the imagination, so I know she didn't have any batteries on her, and honestly, this time period doesn't have the light-weight metals we used to take for granted."

"This place is kinda crazy, huh?" Mizuki remarked as they both settled on the edge of Erika's bed and she picked up the phone.

It was a regular, local model, primitive beyond imagination, but functional for all that.

"Yeah, it's eccentric, but in a way, a bit familiar, too," she replied and smiled at Mizuki's look of surprise. "In my home, on weekends and evenings at least, it was chaos, too. It came from too many people about, mostly family disciples hanging around, training, that sort of thing, so I guess I can understand this situation. Though I do have to say that no one we trained, to my knowledge, ever claimed to be a god."

"They're both very beautiful, though."

Erika sniffed. "Vulgar is more like it. Okay, let's get this over with."

"What?"

"Like Hyoudou-san said, we have to call Nagasawa-sensei."

The conversation lasted for almost an hour, but it was mostly a repetition of "Yes, we're both okay," and "Yes, everything is fine," and "Everyone's nice." Both girls left out the absurd story told to them on the way, as well as the mostly naked woman in the doorway as well as the one with divine delusions. What would be the point in going into something like that?

When they finally hung up the phone, they were both so exhausted they fell asleep on Erika's bed.

It was the knocking on the door and someone calling out her name that woke Erika up. She opened her eyes and watched the ceiling for a while, trying to remember exactly where she was. It wasn't _home_ , and it wasn't the group home, so where—? _I Orphis, the Infinite Dragon God._ Oh, right. The madhouse. Her mind churned. Gods, magicians… Really, what was the difference? In her own world was a magician so strong, she was commonly referred to as the Demon of the East, and she was kin to one of her closest friends from school.

Of course, there was another one, spoken of in hushed whispers and with trembling lips. _God of Destruction_ , they sometimes called him, but no one knew who it really was. At least, her brothers didn't, and it was by listening to them—well, eavesdropping, really—that Erika learned even that little. There was no record of his identity, and if the Japanese government knew of him, it was the most closely guarded secret. No, no one knew who he was, but the record of his accomplishments, or at least those ascribed to him, though short, was quite impressive.

If rumours were to be believed, he alone accounted for two invasions and two invasion fleets.

Is that how it was? If she thought of it as just a title, she could live with someone calling herself a dragon god.

Mizuki gently snored on the other side of the huge bed and Erika turned her head to look. Her gaze met an unfamiliar pair of dark brown eyes staring back at her and she jumped out of bed with a startled yelp.

"Mizuki, wake up," she hissed.

Between her and Mizuki lay a young girl, probably around 13, wearing dark makeup and dressed in a black Gothic Lolita outfit virtually identical to one they had seen earlier, though a less scandalous version. Her hands were clasped over her chest and apart from the eyes that followed Erika's every movement, she was entirely motionless, looking for all the world like a corpse in a coffin.

Rubbing her eyes, her friend sat up in bed and looked around. "Erika-chan, what's going on? Have the others arrived?" Then her eyes fell on the girl lying beside her. "Who's this?"

"That's _my_ line."

"Erika, Mizuki, are you both in here?" a familiar female voice said from beyond the door. There was the sound of knocking again. Ah, so that's what woke her up in the first place.

"Yes, we are, Mrs. Hyoudou," she called out in reply. "Come on in."

The door opened and the older woman stepped inside. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she noticed the girl on the bed. Her expression turned into a frown.

"Lilith-chan, so that's where you went," she said in the tone of one having said a similar thing many times in the past. She rubbed the bridge of her nose in a gesture Erika found extremely familiar. "Erika, Mizuki, I'm very sorry. I hope she didn't bother you."

"We didn't even know she was here until we woke up," Mizuki replied.

"I came to see if they had any snacks," the girl said in a monotone voice almost devoid of emotion. "They smelled like miso soup, but I was looking for something sweet."

Unconsciously, Erika breathed on the inside of her hand. Okay, maybe she did smell like miso soup, but come on, it wasn't that bad. Besides, she would need the nose of a hound to smell it all the way outside this giant room from behind closed doors. And that brought up a point. How did she even get in?

"There are snacks in the kitchen," Mrs. Hyoudou told her, stifling a laugh.

"Couldn't reach. Anyway, they looked so comfortable that I joined them. I am sorry for causing trouble."

She stayed in bed the entire time without moving, staring up at the ceiling.

"Before apologizing, you should at least introduce yourself," Mrs. Hyoudou said.

The girl immediately rolled out of bed and somehow managed to gain her feet without hitting the floor. She walked toward the door a few steps and turned around to bow to both Erika and Mizuki at the same time.

"I am Lilith," she announced in a ringing voice so unlike her previous words that Erika began to suspect it wasn't even the same person, "the Black Dragon God of Infinity."

"What, another one?" Erika couldn't help but ask in surprise.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Hello, and thanks for reading thus far. Hopefully you've been enjoying the story in which I am trying to weave new characters into the existing DxD canon without significantly altering its fabric. Now, I've been posting about a chapter per week, and Chapter Six has been completed. I_ may _delay posting it a bit to give me a chance to finish Chapter Seven. Hope you'll join me for this continuing adventure._


	6. Reunion Arc - Chapter 6

"I am Lilith," the girl announced in a ringing voice so unlike her previous words and behaviour that Erika began to suspect it wasn't even the same person, "the Black Dragon God of Infinity."

"What, another one?" Erika couldn't help but ask in surprise.

Was it something in the water? Or maybe the house had lead pipes and was slowly poisoning the residents. Didn't someone say that the _devils_ built it? Not that she really understood what a devil was, but who knows what they put in its design. If that's the case, the Saegusa twins better watch out.

She snorted. Devils. How was she supposed to even take that seriously?

"Lilith-chan," Mrs. Hyoudou said in exasperation. It sounded like a conversation she'd had many times, and with several different people, first and foremost that woman with the tail.

Then Erika remembered something and decided to remedy an earlier lapse. There was a moment of premonition, a warning that fluttered through her mind, but she pressed on. How bad could it be, in a world without magic?

Erika opened her senses, tried accessing the Idea Dimension, the birthright of all magicians.

Nothing complex, just find the target like for a spell and confirm it, but no more. It was a subconscious and the simplest of all actions even for a magician as weak as her. Before she could react and close the gates, blinding agony shot through her head and hammered her down to her knees. She couldn't even make a sound as she held her head between her hands and rocked back and forth, whimpering.

"Erika!" Mizuki screamed and followed her to the floor where she cradled her friend in her arms. "Erika, what's wrong? Can you—?"

She couldn't answer her, she couldn't even look at her, and she barely felt her friend's touch. It was data overload, pure and simple, a feedback her brain couldn't process at all. She was seeing too much, images and impressions fluttering through her mind.

Living memories flooded Erika's mind, countless millennia compressed into fractions of seconds, and she held her head even tighter.

ZZZ

A vast space, a nothingness, a profound silence. An awareness of self and of its own power, an intelligence as old as time itself, born into the infinite nothingness that permeated the universe and all the hidden creavases strewn across it. There was no inherent purpose to its existence other than _to be_. It did have a name, one that always appeared in its mind whenever it thought about it, but there was no one to tell it to. Well, mostly.

For incomprehensible stretches of time, that was all there was, and it was glorious. Somewhere out there was the pulse of another like it, a being of equal if not greater power, but it didn't matter. That one didn't disturb the silence, so there was no reason to worry, and certainly none at all to reveal one's name to it.

It floated in the empty space between universes, a buffer of sorts, but no matter where it went, it always seemed to return to the same coordinates in time and space, the same world. It was the only one that mattered, as far as it was concerned. Oh, true, there were countless others, many with life already teeming on them, but this one held more potential for… It didn't know. Was that an important question to ask? It didn't know that, either.

The world turned and changed under its apathetic, incurious watch. Life had been present there almost since the very beginning, but it wasn't very interesting, not at first. As its attention was drawn there, its inherent power leaked out and spilled onto the world. It didn't even know it was doing it, but in time it learned to better control itself. The power interacted with the world and gave birth to a new species. Upon awakening, the dragons looked at each other as well as their accidental creator, and decided to live as they pleased.

Dragons, like their creator: the ultimate expression of _selfish_ _free will_.

There were other beings in the world now: several Heavens, a Hell, Valhalla, Mount Olympus, Mount Meru, as well as countless others, every one a realm outside the world, yet connected to it and each other with navigable conduits. Uncertainty surrounded their origin, but they were each a vast concentration of power capable of overturning reality itself. It didn't matter to the timeless creator of dragons; even combined, they were no match for the existence that had watched over the world since it first came into being. Some of these powers, but not all, made tactful overtures to the lesser dragons, and were completely ignored. Dragons had no need of more gods, not when they already had one they paid no attention to.

Surface conditions and shifting lines of possibility aligned and the first humans appeared, evolving from proliferating apes, and quickly spread across the world. Their sudden appearance and boundless imagination garnered the attention of the various realms. Heaven and Hell were particularly interested, but the watchful existence couldn't understand why. What was so special about those hairless monkeys? Certainly, they were no dragons. Look, they didn't even have tails like a proper monkey should.

In the world, two clear bells rang, announcing for all who could hear _and_ understand the birth of a special pair of dragons. These were different from the rest, masses of power that no god or dragon could approach and coloured pure, one red, the other white. Silence gave way to curiosity, and the timeless watcher went to have a closer look. Unlike their fellows, these dragons acknowledged it as Orphis, the Infinite Dragon God, but that was the extent of their piety.

They were polite and respectful, and would take time to converse, but in the end, they had eyes only for each other. Their constant battles brought endless problems for the world, and as their power and skill grew beyond all measure, beyond even the Six Dragon Kings combined, no one could stop them. The best even gods could do was confine them to a small island, earning them the title of Dragon Emperors.

The noise was unbearable.

Losing interest in the world, Orphis tried to return to its home, its solitude, its _silence_ , but that was no longer possible. In that moment of curiosity and inattention, **HE** had suddenly taken up residence, all big and so… red. Orphis tried to argue, but the red one was implacable.

"You were not here," was all **HE** would deign to say when confronted. "Now I am here."

And then he just turned his head with a disdainful sniff, an action which coincidentally shrouded a living planet on the other side of the galaxy in mist hotter than the sun, and went swimming through the home of Orphis, uncaring for the mess he was making and leaving behind a glittering trail of noise. Fighting him was pointless since they would be at it forever, and silence became forever unattainable.

Orphis endeavoured to rekindle its interest in the world, but it was so different now. _How had time passed so quickly?_ For a being who hardly noticed if a million years should go by, the argument with that red bastard couldn't have taken all _that_ long, could it? Or, was the change in the world somehow accelerating? It had started out so slowly, profound alterations to the fabric of the world few and far between, but it seemed that change that should occur over millions of years now took place across just thousands.

The world changed again under its watch. Angels of one of the Heavens Fell, creating a new power block, and this act of rebellion ignited the three-sided war between them and Heaven and Hell. All creatures of the world were forced to take sides to ensure their own survival. All, that is, except the dragons. The war had nothing to do with them, so why should they put themselves out for a petty squabble between lesser beings?

And in that time of unprecedented carnage and destruction across the realms, the red and the white dragons—when did they gain the title of _Heavenly Dragons_?—staged a wild fight. Puzzled by their antics, Orphis watched from afar, but would not interfere. Even if it should lead to self-destruction, free will must be absolute, its expression entirely unfettered.

So it came to pass. Of the three sides—Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils—no one was strong enough to handle the two Heavenly Dragons at the same time, not without smashing the world asunder. However, by coming together and working as a team, they were at last able to bring them to heel, cutting them to pieces in the process, and sealed away their powers and souls in Sacred Gears, cursed toys Heaven had invented. These devices that could grant divine, and in some cases infernal, powers to certain humans, automatically moving on to the next host as their previous wielder died. Thus were the seeds of mutual cooperation sewn into the hearts of Heaven and Hell, but that was a consideration for the future. In the meantime, the war could continue uninterrupted.

Only, it turned out, that it couldn't. The God and the Four Devil Kings who started the war in the first place were dead, and with them went its impetus. Bloodied, exhausted, and driven to near extinction, the three sides pulled back and settled into a sort of cold war, while the other gods breathed a sigh of relief.

Dragons sniffed in disdain and lived how they pleased, as they always have.

Over the thousands of years that followed—and it was sheer agony for a timeless being to pay attention to such miniscule divisions—Orphis watched without care as the white and red dragons used human intermediaries in their endless, mindless struggle. Not a single one of their countless standard bearers was interesting in any way, despite an occasional flash of brilliance. In the end, each and every one of them were consumed by the power of their Sacred Gears and died, accomplishing nothing of note.

Men, women, boys, girls, guilty, innocent… It didn't matter. One way or another, all had succumbed, without exception, to that god's hatred of dragons.

In time, Orphis, like all beings with wants and desires outside of themselves, succumbed to temptation. "Grant us some of your power so we may defeat our enemies," descendants of the dead Devil Kings said, but they ranted for three whole turns of the world around the sun before getting to the point, "and we will evict **HIM** from your home. You will attain silence."

For Orphis, it was a forlorn hope at best—at worst, a self-delusion—since they couldn't even beat other devils. But, if there was even one chance of a quadrillion, that was enough for a being that paid no attention to time. And so, drunk with the power Orphis gave them, they went forth to do war upon all those who had wronged them.

By staging assassinations, spreading corrupting influence, and general terrorist acts against Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels. They made themselves a nuisance more than anything else, but Orphis would not abandon them because their few serious assaults looked, for a brief moment, like they might succeed.

When it was all finally over, three of the five descendants were dead, accomplishing nothing, their legacy turned to dust. In retrospect, Orphis realized that there was never any hope for their success, nor was there ever any chance of regaining silence. The true enemy of the Devil King descendants was not the new Devil government nor was it the bright, shining eyes filled with hope with which Devils looked toward a future for their children not drowned in hate and blood and loss.

Likewise for Orphis, the true enemy was not **HIM**.

In the end, it had always been the shifting sands of time. An unthinking, unfeeling force of nature, beyond gods and devils alike, cruel in its implacability, it bound everyone who acted in time and space to _inevitable consequences_. By granting even a miniscule portion of its power to those who were already drowning in hate and jealousy, Orphis had altered the fabric of the world and changed the natural course of things. As a result, Orphis went into hiding to prevent an even bigger catastrophe, and Lilith was born, an innocent made to do terrible things in the name of one who had jumped head first into madness and malice.

The world was moving toward a new equilibrium, and those who failed to understand this, or simply shut their eyes to the truth, were eliminated without question, no matter how much damage they caused first.

At the centre of this unprecedented chain of events were—

A pair of dragons roared together, the white and the red, Albion and Ddraig, and for the first time in recorded history, with the curses that inhibited them shattered, they looked at each other with understanding, not loathing and hate. It had something to do with women's butts and breasts, but Orphis couldn't understand the details.

Vali, possessed by Albion, the White Dragon Emperor.

Issei, possessed by Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor.

These two men, despite a rocky first meeting, in less than a year overturned everything that was known about the red and white dragons, and by their own hands forged a new path for themselves and the world. Even the dragons inside them accepted this change, subordinating their will to those they possessed. That would have been unthinkable just a single generation before.

As for Orphis, the two Heavenly Dragons offered—

ZZZ

"—hear me?"

Fingertips, cool and gentle, touched Erika's forehead and she instinctively shied away, but the fingers stayed. A moment later, the feedback ended and the pain dissipated like it had never been, leaving nothing but memories. Memories, and understanding.

"How can this world be real?" Erika muttered, still holding head in her hands, an action more instinctual than pained.

The nature of Orphis stood clear in her mind, though she still found it hard to accept, but what of Lilith? Was it really possible that she was less than a year old? She looked up into the same unfathomable dark brown eyes that had greeted her earlier.

"There, all better now," Lilith said, kneeling in front of her. "But please don't do that again; it is very dangerous, especially for you. Humans here have evolved a natural defence: they can't sense the powers that surround them. The very god they worship can sit right next to them, but the humans will never know it. In your case, since you come from a world of different rules, that protection doesn't exist. But I hope that you've satisfied at least some of your curiosity." A small smile played across her otherwise emotionless lips, and it was somehow more terrifying than anything. "You've certainly satisfied mine about _your_ world."

"Erika, are you alright?" Mizuki was shaking her, and would probably continue until she either answered or got shaken into pieces. "Answer me!"

"Erika-chan, are you okay?" Mrs. Hyoudou asked at the same time.

Curiosity? Did that mean that while she was being overwhelmed, her knowledge of that world was being sent the other way? Erika didn't know how she felt about that.

"No, I'm okay, no harm done."

"What happened?"

She had no idea what happened, but that wouldn't fly as an answer. So, when all else fails, act as always before.

"I'm fine, just opened a tap I didn't know how to close," she said with a carefree and entirely false grin on her face.

The expression on Mizuki's face darkened and Erika cursed her careless, unthinking tongue. It was the wrong thing to say, she recognized it immediately at that perfect point when it was too late to take it back. She might have fooled Mrs. Hyoudou; after all, they had only just met and the older woman had no experience in dealing with Erika's particular method of handling unwanted problems.

But Mizuki, after three years—

"Shut up! Stop lying! Stop pretending you are not hurt when you clearly are." Words poured out of her, heartfelt and sincere, as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You push yourself too hard, the Kendo club, always thinking of my safety, waking up before five in the morning and not going to bed before midnight. It won't be long before you break. Why are you always like this, going to these extremes? Opening yourself up like that, even _I_ could feel the backwash, which should be impossible. Erika, what am I supposed to do if you get really hurt? Do you think there is anybody in this stupid world who can treat you for anything other than a few cuts or even a broken bone?"

All the accumulated frustration of the past year, all the fear, flowed out of her in a rush, accompanied by a steady stream of tears. For the first time, Erika understood her own inadequacy, her own stupidity, and her own sense of insecurity. She had seen this look on Mizuki's face before, but had never considered its meaning. Mizuki was always happiest when the two of them supported each other rather than Erika taking on the role of Lone Protector.

Though she possessed no fighting magic of her own, nor any martial arts training, twice Mizuki went into live combat without flinching because her special eyes gave her friends an advantage. She was terrified the whole time, but she did it anyway because she wanted to support her friends, and knew that they would likewise support her. But now, with Erika acting entirely on her own, even with what she thought were best intentions—

"I want a _friend_ , Erika," Mizuki was continuing as if reading her mind, "someone to share this insane life with, someone I can rely on to tell me when I'm being wrong and stupid, someone I can watch over and support. I don't want a guard dog who will break herself by purposely jumping into stupidly dangerous situations without taking even a moment to consider what she is doing. You are not stupid, so why would you lower your defences like this when you _know_ that this world has monsters like that thing half a year ago? What happened to the girl who knew to not open herself up to those Parasites we fought? Or are you just trying to get yourself killed?"

Mizuki stopped talking to take a deep breath and in that moment of silence broken only by Mrs. Hyoudou's heavy breathing, Erika savoured an unexpected epiphany. Wow, so this is the infamous _Shibata Tongue Lashing_. In their last school in Tokyo, she had heard of a rumour that she never bothered to verify. 'Don't piss off that Shibata chick, or she'll tear you down in front of the whole class and make you question your worth as a human being.' Back in their own world, she had been on the receiving end of a few milder versions of these, usually when Erika was getting on people's nerves or acting out, and she always laughed them off. Now, with her pretensions and delusions stripped away by a voice full of tears and fear and love, she saw how right Mizuki had always been.

Damn, she really hadn't been paying real attention to her friend. Not at all, but Mizuki wasn't holding back at all. She just said 'stupid' four times in a row.

"But you know what, Erika? I can do that, too."

"Eh?"

She looked up to see her friend's face, a confused frown creasing her brow. What did Mizuki mean by that?

"I can leap before looking, too, and probably give you your answers faster and easier."

In a fit of anger and frustration and fear, Mizuki ripped off the glasses from her face and tossed them across the room. She turned her unprotected eyes on the small girl in front of her, the same eyes that Mikihiko once called 'Eyes That Can See God', eyes that can see the smallest manifestation of spirit magic… and blood drained from her face.

"Dragon," she whimpered but would not look away. "So big and black."

"Mizuki, stop! Put your glasses back on!"

Erika panicked. This was not at all what she intended that day when she swore to herself to protect her friend. Their first school in this world had a bullying problem, it was true, but it wasn't physical. Those kids weren't brave enough, not even when in a group. Mizuki may not be able to handle herself in a fight—few could—but in any other confrontation she had a courage of her own. That, and Erika really should have remembered that she could tear strips off people without ever laying a finger on them. One bully reduced to tears, maybe two, that's all it would have taken, especially with Erika glowering from behind.

But now look at what she drove her friend to do.

The room twisted and spun around her as she scrambled to her feet, but she somehow managed to stay upright. Frantically she looked around for the glasses; where could they have gone? Mizuki didn't respond, but just sat there, her mouth hanging open and looking with entranced eyes at the small girl who—she claimed—only came in to look for snacks. At some point, Mrs. Hyoudou disappeared from the room, but she had no idea when or where she went. At that moment it really wasn't important.

Mizuki shuddered as a small hand reached out and cupped her cheek. She shuddered, and then settled down with a contented sigh.

Still unable to find the glasses, Erika's hand tightened around the hilt of her police baton. It wasn't fully recharged as the short drive hadn't given it enough time, but she whipped it out nonetheless. It snapped immediately to full extension as soon as she fed psions into it and she thumbed a switch. The Activation Sequence spread out and two seconds later the Magic Sequence was constructed and ready for use.

 _Too slow,_ she thought, _and out of practice. I really_ am _a Course 2 student._

But the advantage to this magic was that it set as a target the tip of her baton. There was no need to again expose herself to the horror of that Gothic Lolita's Eidos.

"I don't know what you're doing," she said, "but please let Mizuki go. I've never used this on a child, but I will if I have to. No matter what, even if she'll hate me for this and won't speak to me again, I _will_ protect her."

"Erika, don't!" a familiar voice shouted from the doorway and she looked up too see Mikihiko standing there, Tatsuya right behind him, and Mrs. Hyoudou with panicked eyes bringing up the rear. There were a pair of charms loosely held in Mikihiko's hand, glowing with power and she could feel his magic in them, but she wondered idly whom he intended to use them on.

In the instant that her attention was diverted, a small hand grabbed her wrist. Showing far more strength than a girl of that age should be capable of, she pulled Erika down to the floor to become the third corner of a very strange triangle. _When did she get so close to me?_ She hadn't even seen the girl move. Erika, whose forte was personal speed magic, had eyes and brain to match. It wasn't only that she was blindingly fast, but she could also see and understand everything around her. So how was it possible for the girl to move without her noticing?

The room and the voices faded away into a thick, swirling fog that covered everything.

ZZZ

In a grey, featureless world, Erika found herself sitting on a chair. Alone. Her baton was back in her jacket pocket, but she had no recollection of returning it there. She looked around, but there was nothing. There wasn't even a floor holding up her chair.

"Mizuki! Lilith-chan! Anybody?"

No echo, no sound. Just a familiar, comforting silence.

"Well, great," she grumbled. "What the hell have you gotten herself into now?" Man, she'd never hear the end of it from Mizuki, probably make her cry again, and that had never been the intent.

"You're not alone," a familiar, emotionless voice said from literally right behind her and she jumped away with a startled yell. "There's nothing here for you to be afraid of."

She twisted around to have a look and found Lilith, still dressed in the same outfit, standing there with Mizuki holding her hand. _Or was she holding Mizuki's hand?_ When the two girls saw each other, they both blushed and looked away.

"Erika, I—" Mizuki began, stammering, tears standing out in her eyes again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said those horrible things."

 _Too good for her own good._ It wasn't the first time Erika thought that about her friend, but never with rancour. This was precisely the reason she took on the protector's role, but with everything now seen in stark relief, she realized it wasn't a weakness but a strength. No one at school hated or even disliked Mizuki, despite her reputation for having a sharp tongue. As for Erika, she had only gotten into one fight at their new school, and though the two boys had come out of it far worse than she did and admitted their wrongdoing, she was thereafter seen as barely stable, violent and dangerous.

Her reputation was of a troublemaker, but Mizuki was seen, even by the teachers, as one who smoothed things over.

Worse still, the scolding Mizuki gave her afterward lasted for three whole days.

She went over to her friend and tightly embraced her.

"Don't be like that," she said and Mizuki relaxed. "You're not the one who should be apologizing here, but rather me. Mizuki, I'm so sorry. You were right about pretty much everything. I was just doing my thing without considering how you felt, and I really was taking far too many risks. I think the fact that we're both here in this—" She looked around at the featureless surroundings. "Well, whatever the hell this place is, is proof of that."

After a brief conversation, the tension between went away, and they went over to join the young girl who brought them to this place.

"Lilith-chan," Mizuki said, "where are we? What's going on?"

The girl turned around and took their hands in hers. Erika flinched away, remembering what happened the last time they touched, but it seemed that it was for no more than to just hold hands.

"It's the space separating the mortal realm from Heaven and Hell," she replied, looking around with curious, almost hungry eyes. "Well, it's not real, anyway, just a projection from my mind to yours. Gods and Devils of this world call it the Dimensional Gap, but their vision is too narrow. It's also a buffer between various universes. Anyway, look there."

She nodded toward a particular direction, drawing their attention. A blue and white globe with a rocky satellite swam through purplish haze. Erika recognized it immediately, as any educated person would, but there was something wrong with the image being presented.

"If that's supposed to be the Earth," she said to the small girl holding her hand, "the space around it isn't full of purple smoke."

"The smoke doesn't really exist," Lilith replied with a shake of her head. "It's more of a representation for a concept humans, gods, and devils find difficult to understand. Look closer."

The view of the Earth shifted, showing smaller worlds attached to it via conduits. She had seen this image before, but now it appeared much clearer, and she pointed to each one in turn as she said, "Biblical Heaven, Hell, Mount Olympus, Valhalla, Mount Meru, Omeyocan…" She recited the countless mythological realms one after another as they sprung into being around the Earth, wondering the whole time how she knew all this. Even Mizuki was looking at her in a strange way.

When she was finished—mostly because she ran out of breath—she frowned.

"You've got to be kidding me. Are you saying that all of those are real at the same time?"

Lilith smiled. "Mmm. Like I said before, it's a narrow view that gods and devils subscribe to. In reality, the realms exist in the same space and time, but at a different… Oh, how can I explain it? Let's see. Yes. In human terms, you know how different kinds of data can travel over the same wire at the same time and be properly separated and reassembled? Just think of it like that, with the concept of Self determining the separation."

"What do you mean by that?" Mizuki asked, squeezing Erika's hand even tighter, but this time, not in warning.

"How they see themselves and others, how standoffish they are, this is what creates the separation between the realms. For example, see those two over there?"

The world shifted in front of the two girls, bringing two particular realms into clearer definition. Unlike the others, they were very closely situated from each other.

"Heaven and Hell," Erika said.

"That's right. Devils, the hated existence, the Other. Until quite recently, even gods not in any way connected to them despised them, and some still do, but look how closely aligned to Heaven their realm is. There's even a weak connection between them, and although in general they now view this idea with distaste, many older Devils still think of gods and religions unconnected to the biblical Heaven as Heathen." She laughed. "Throughout history, that particular Heaven had a strong interest in humanity, and the Devils took an almost childish delight in messing with its followers."

"Lilith-chan, why are you telling us all this?" Mizuki asked.

An impish grin lit up the girl's otherwise unperturbed and emotionless face. "Maybe I just want to share my joy at discovering new friends who might share snacks with me." Then she grew serious again. "But no, I wanted to show you where you're from in relation to this world."

Mizuki gasped and Erika felt her breath catch in her throat and subconsciously they drew closer to the small girl.

"You can show us our world?" Erika asked, her breath ragged.

Lilith shook her head. "No, just its relationship to this universe, and maybe help explain why this one is so similar to yours. Look over there." She nodded again toward the blue and white sphere.

ZZZ

Surrounded by the various supernatural realms, the Earth orbited the sun, which itself spun around the centre of the galaxy. Mechanically, it seemed, the universe was exactly as how later science would explain it. But, there was an added layer to it, a complexity that science couldn't explain for no reason other than that humans couldn't perceive that layer. They were blind to it.

For countless eons, monstrous forms originating in the attached realms held the world in their hands and watched over the expanding lesser existences. Higher order life grew under their care, but in time, its rising self-awareness caused a change to occur among the gods of the world. As humanity ebbed and flowed, many of the gods grew less monstrous and became almost human-like, in appearance, temperament, and behaviour.

ZZZ

"All this," Lilith said, "is taken from the memories of Orphis, the only being who has been watching the entire universe from the very beginning."

"I remember," Erika said, scratching at her cheek. "But why do you have them?"

"I am of Orphis, so naturally I share the memories."

Lilith said it as emotionlessly as ever, but Erika thought she detected something unusual in her voice.

"Here **HE** comes," Lilith added and the purple mist surrounding them blew away, space turning into a kaleidoscope of rioting colours.

Something red moved across their field of vision, dragging _change_ with it. Then it was gone as if it had never been, leaving only the colours as mute evidence of its passage.

"Was that a… _dragon_?" Mizuki asked tentatively.

That's what Erika thought it looked like, too, and both girls turned to look at Lilith.

"That's right. Great Red, also known as the True Red Dragon God Emperor. Much more so than Orphis who had an unrecognized obsession with this part of the universe, the Great Red is known far beyond these realms. Truly a universal creature, he is also known as Dragon of Dreams across the countless worlds of the universe, most of them not human. I saw in your memories, Erika; you already deduced that something 'out there' passes dreams along. That would be Great Red."

"So you're saying we're from some parallel world that wasn't even good enough to get some gods interested in it?"

Somehow, in Erika's mind, that seemed like the worst part of the explanation. Nothing they had was of their making, but rather given to them through some sort of bizarre cosmic joke.

But Lilith was shaking her head in denial.

"That's not it at all. Erika, don't sell yourself or your world short. It is true that you're from a parallel world that never received any attention from God-class beings. That's an undeniable fact, but the Idea Dimension that you use so casually use disproves everything you're thinking about."

"What do you mean?"

The ideas churning in her head struck her to the very core of her being, calling into question everything she had thought true.

"Your friends have spoken of it before, but no one has been able to understand it. Not even Orphis, a being as old as the universe, could grasp the concept. She and I can sense it, but we can't really understand it. Your people were able to learn how to use a universal constant like the Idea Dimension when no one, not devils nor gods of this world even recognized its existence despite being surrounded by it."

She stopped talking for a long, silent moment. Then she burst out in peal after peal of delighted laughter.

"What's so funny?" Erika asked, staring at the small girl.

"No, it's just that I realized something, that's all. We did it to your kind ourselves."

The two girls exchanged a confused look. "Who did what?"

"I said before, didn't I? Gods of this world leave an overwhelming record in the Idea Dimension, so humans evolved a defence against it by purposely blinding themselves to it. It would have been the best solution to that problem, selecting a trait to allow the species to survive, but also leaving it blind to magic."

Mizuki's shoulders slumped. "So, is there no magic here at all?"

"Not like yours. From what that perverted Fallen Angel once said, there's never been a case of anything like it. The occasional human born with powers or abilities beyond his race's inherent capabilities, but that's all." She smiled. "The power rarely surfaced in his or her descendants, so you can say that, according to evolution, magic in humans serves no real purpose. It's always selected away. Maybe that was why God of the Bible created Sacred Gears in the first place, to give humanity a way to compete against the monsters that surround them. Silly idea, really. Regardless of how comparatively powerless your people are, you always manage to out-compete everyone else, and your technology… In the history of the world, yours is the only species that's managed to invent something new, and not just once, but every single day. Everyone else just relies on their powers. But I digress.

"Humans had no magic until one man decoded devil powers, analyzed them, and turned it into a system humans could learn if they put in the effort. However, even he wasn't aware of your type of magic because, in the end, he was still human. And, as you've probably guessed, devils have no record in the Idea Dimension."

Erika exchanged a troubled glance with Mizuki, but neither girl said anything. If what Lilith was telling could be relied upon, then it meant that magic in their own was developed along the same lines: a subject of scientific inquiry and experimentation, in many cases quite inhumane.

"If that's the case," Erika said, "if you've truly never encountered our type of magic before, then how do you know so much about it?"

Lilith looked up toward where the ceiling should have been, a distant expression on her face. "Oh, it's time to return. Your friends are getting frantic and it's already been two seconds."

Only two seconds have passed? This whole discussion should have taken much longer.

So she wasn't going to answer that question, but was she trying to hide something?

"I truly enjoy living here with him, his friends, his parents, and Orphis. We all get something out of it, and snacks are best when there are friends to share them with." She grinned. "But don't tell Orphis that; she is too greedy. As he always says, 'peace is the best.' I know that these days won't last, but I can pretend in the meantime." All expression vanished from her face as her eyes once again became dull and lifeless. "Well, here we go, but just remember this—"

After a moment, she let go of both Erika and Mizuki.

ZZZ

As the colour riot returned to normal, she found herself sitting on the floor beside Mizuki with the girl, Lilith, in front of them. Others were in the room now, too, her friends and, she guessed, those who lived in this house: a muscular boy with a pair of girls clustered around him, one blonde and the other white-haired, and also Kiba Yuuto. Orphis was there with them, as well, still as indecently dressed as ever and looking entirely unconcerned, with Lilith hiding her face in one of the folds of the older woman's dress. That girl's presence was still overwhelming and she didn't dare open herself up any more, not after the last time. Because of that, she was unable to verify that same kind of emptiness around them all like she had sensed around Yuuto.

 _And besides, how in the world did she get there so quickly?_

But now that she thought about it, she realized how similar to Orphis Lilith looked. They could easily pass for a younger sister and an older sister. Maybe there was something to it when she said, _"I am of Orphis."_

Tatsuya was on Erika's left, supporting her, while Mikihiko held a crying Mizuki in his arms, but those were tears of joy. Well, that was to be expected.

One of the unfamiliar boys said something she couldn't hear to Mrs. Hyoudou who hovered near Lilith, wringing her hands and looked like she was about to have a major panic attack, but she suddenly buried her face in her hands and started to cry.

"Oh, great," Erika muttered. "I made her cry, too. First Mizuki, now Mrs. Hyoudou. Good job, Erika, you're on a roll today."

"—hear me?" Tatsuya's voice roared into her left ear and she winced. Was he amplifying his own voice? But no one else was reacting like he was. "Erika, can you hear me?" Now it was back down to normal, _human_ decibels. "Erika?"

"I can hear you," she replied. "Hello, Tatsuya. Long time no see, but this isn't how I imagined our reunion would be."

He actually smiled. "Heh. That's what happens when you jump into a well without first determining if it's feathers or razor blades at the bottom."

* * *

 **A/N:** Here at last is Chapter Six. Sorry for the delay, but work has been kicking my ass lately.


	7. Reunion Arc - Chapter 7

Tatsuya had actually hugged her and that caused her some consternation. To use a modern term, he was not a touchy-feely person at the best of times, so that was unexpected and strangely comforting. To her side, Mizuki started crying the moment she recognized Mikihiko, and now they seemed to be lost in each other. Well, that's not a surprise.

"Erika, how do you feel?" Tatsuya asked and she briefly studied him. He looked older, but that wasn't the only change since she last saw him a year ago in another world. He seemed more mature now, almost an adult. A lot must have happened to him in that time. With a sinking feeling Erika realized that, by comparison, _she_ managed to skate through their collective separation hardly noticing anything at all. "Can you stand up?"

"I think I'm okay," she replied, mindful of any behaviour that might trip Mizuki into another scolding. "It's not like I was physically injured, so—"

She allowed Tatsuya to help her to her feet, but then the room spun around her and her knees buckled. Despite his assistance, she sank to the floor.

"Okay, just stay there for a bit and rest."

"Ahh, damn. Not exactly doing the Chiba family proud here."

"Wait, Tatsuya," the brown-haired, muscular boy said. "Chiba-san shouldn't move yet. She was in direct contact with Lilith, and I know firsthand how taxing a dragon god can be."

To Erika's eyes, and allowing for this being their very first meeting, he seemed distracted, always patting his hip as though reassuring himself that his cell phone was there. He was putting on a brave act, but his eyes looked worried, and she really didn't think it was about her.

"But is she going to be okay?" Mrs. Hyoudou asked with tears in her eyes. "I remember, that time, and you… just for us… and now this again…"

"Mom, she'll be alright," he replied, embracing her. _Mom? So unless there's a brother I haven't heard about, that's Issei Hyoudou._ Funny, he didn't look like an emperor. Despite the reputation engendered by the few stories his mother had told, not to mention those strange memories of Orphis, he seemed so… normal, if surprisingly muscular. "That time I was overwhelmed by Dragon Deification—" Huh? A strange term, but one she was on the verge of understanding. Was that Lilith's influence? Her momentary contact with that girl's mind gave her vast insight into the differences between this world and her old one, but she wasn't sure she could fully grasp it all only with her own understanding. "—but even before Azazel did that thing, I was already on the mend, just very slowly. In Chiba-san's case, she was simply exposed to some of Lilith's memories. She'll be just fine with a bit of rest."

Erika wondered how he knew all that as it had been merely seconds since Lilith broke contact with her and Mizuki.

"So, Erika, the world has made its decision and is now looking to see how you will react," Tatsuya deadpanned with a straight face and she stared at him, uncomprehending. "Where will you take your rest, here or downstairs in the living room? Choose wisely, for much is riding on your decision."

"Did you just make an unnecessary joke?" she asked him. "Who _are_ you?"

Even Hyoudou was frowning in confusion.

"Yeah, Tatsuya, what she said. I may have some understanding of how dragons operate, but aren't you being a little blasé and nonchalant about what just happened with Chiba-san?"

"Hmm, you may be right, Issei-senpai, but I guess I'm just not used to it."

"Used to what?"

"Lately, my sister's been after me to 'show a bit of humour,' as she put it. I've been trying, but my sense of timing and appropriateness is still quite a ways off. That's a small part of it, but in a larger sense, I guess I'm just not that worried about her."

"Don't you think that's a tad too callous, Tatsuya-san?" Mrs. Hyoudou asked, looking at him with angry eyes and wiping away her own tears. "Your friend just had this kind of mishap and you're treating it like a joke. Not to mention that you're being extremely rude to her."

He looked genuinely puzzled and Erika realized with a sinking feeling where this was heading. "Is that how I seem? That certainly wasn't my intention. Ma'am, you met Erika and Mizuki what, five or six hours ago, but before we were separated, I knew them for two years. More importantly, I've been through a war and three armed conflicts with them, so I know exactly what they, and especially Erika, are capable of."

Her eyes widened in surprise and she stared at the four of them. "A _war_? You mean all four of you were actually fighting on the front lines? But—"

"Mizuki is not a fighter," Mikihiko said, helping her to her feet. "Unlike the rest of us, she wasn't born into a mage family, but even so, she was active during the Yokohama invasion and later in the defence against the Parasites. She always does what she thinks is right." The girl in question blushed and turned her face away for a moment, but he didn't seem to notice. "With the exception of Minami-chan and the Saegusa twins, the rest of us, yeah, pretty much what Tatsuya said. I saw Erika cut clean through an armoured, magically enhanced urban suppression tank. And not just once, but many times over."

"Ah, damn it, Miki," she muttered as all eyes turned on her in sudden realization that, yes, she _was_ , in fact, quite capable of massive carnage.

Why the hell was he telling them that? It really wasn't a time she wanted to remember. Still a first year high school student at the time, she and her friends were defending a landing site for an evacuation helicopter, but they just kept coming and coming. It was entirely possible that, in all of the confusion, the tank drivers didn't even realize they were there and merely tried converging on a rally position.

At that moment, in a time of war, her options were quite clear: kill or be killed. This she was entirely clear on, so it wasn't the lives she had taken that bothered her. It was only since coming to this world that the eagerness with which she attacked every tank started to make her think too much. With that two-handed sword in her grasp, its blade almost as long as she was tall, she felt damn near omnipotent, like she could take on an army all by herself and win.

And she very nearly did.

It couldn't have been the sword's doing as it didn't really have any innate intelligence. Unlike all the fairy tale swords possessed by this evil spirit or that, it was just a sword, a masterpiece of magic engineering produced by the Chiba family that only Erika could wield to its fullest potential. Even in this crazy world of devils and dragons, swords couldn't be possessed by living beings. Could they?

Or was she simply an inbred mutant, as all magicians in her world were, suffering from all the problems attendant to lack of genetic diversity?

 _Gods, how she missed that sword!_

"The only thing currently wrong with her," Mikihiko continued, "is the weakness due to her spirit body taking a hit. Rest is the prescribed treatment. The reason we sound nonchalant is that we've been through all this before."

Tatsuya cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention and she wanted to kiss him for taking that pressure off her.

"Okay, we're straying off-topic here," he said, "and it was my choice of words that started all this. With that in mind, I sincerely apologize if I gave anyone the impression that I'm callous toward Erika's health, but as Mikihiko said, we have already verified hers and Mizuki's condition. Please don't worry; there is absolutely no cause for alarm."

"Yeah, but that's exactly what a mad scientist _would_ say," Erika muttered.

Of course, hearing that caused Mizuki to frown and she tore her eyes away from Mikihiko's face. "You're not helping, Erika. Don't you think we should at least greet the people here and then go downstairs where you can rest?"

It didn't sound exactly like a question, though. But, best to avoid another scolding, especially one so soon on the heels of the last one.

"Tatsuya, help me up," she murmured and he did so effortlessly like always.

Though the room still spun a little, it wasn't nearly as bad as before, and she managed to execute an acceptable bow. Her father might have found room for complaint, but nobody in the room reacted in a negative way. Mizuki followed suit.

"I apologize for the poor showing," she said. "My intention had been to do things in a proper, respectful order, but… Well, in all honesty, I didn't expect to be sidetracked by a—and I can't believe I'm about to say it—a dragon god in search of snacks." Lilith buried her face even deeper into Orphis' dress folds and shook a little, but Erika got the distinct impression that she was giggling. "Please allow us to introduce ourselves properly. I am Erika Chiba. Thank you very much for reuniting us with our friends."

"And I'm Mizuki Shibata. Thank you for helping us move and for taking such good care of us."

The boy she assumed was Issei stepped forward and confirmed it with his first words.

"And I'm Issei Hyoudou," he said with an open, genuine though somewhat strained smile. Erika could only wonder in silence what was wrong. "Welcome to our home. Hmm, let's see, introductions. Well, you've already met my mom. Dad, too, but I think he's up on the roof working on his vegetable garden. That's Kiba, as you know, but Rossweisse said she had some business at the school and will be returning shortly." He laid his hand on the blonde girl's head and she looked so much like a puppy being petted that Erika couldn't help but think of how similar that behaviour was to someone else she knew from her old world. One glance at Mizuki told her that her friend was seeing the same similarity.

The girl stepped forward and bowed. "My name is Asia Argento and I'm pleased to meet you both."

She was just a bundle of energy, and had the kindest eyes Erika had ever seen, on anyone. The look she directed at Issei was filled with adoration, but… No, it was more than that, a deep and abiding love with no expectation of perfection. Unlike someone else she could mention.

It was the other girl's turn, her white hair almost glowing. "I'm Koneko Toujou," she said with a deadpan serious expression on her face and ran strangely measuring eyes over the two newcomers. "I wonder, is it new contenders?"

Well, Erika supposed, a pair of girls appearing out of nowhere would disturb the residents of the house. From her personal point of view, she was used to such things because she had lived in an orphanage for the last year with kids coming and going almost every other week. For someone else, used to a certain degree of stability, the sudden arrival of newcomers could be cause for alarm. If she and Mizuki wanted to live here without causing undue tension with the others, Erika would need to learn how to interact with them without always rubbing people the wrong way. In other words, she would have to grow the hell up.

But, and this is what took her completely by surprise, was she wrong, or was that girl Koneko staring with hard, distrustful eyes at her chest, as well as Mizuki's? Even Issei Hyoudou noticed it and chuckled, patting the girl on the shoulder. The tension went away like it had never been.

Erika decided that it was time to put to rest another problem that she had created and turned to his mother.

"Mrs. Hyoudou," she said, "I am very sorry. You've been so kind to us, but all I do is cause people problems."

She suddenly found herself encased in a deep embrace and not for the first time Erika wondered at how safe and secure the hug made her feel.

"No, please don't think that," the older woman replied. "It's really nobody's fault, but we just need to be more vigilant to make sure newcomers don't hurt themselves. But are you really feeling okay?"

"No harm done. Like Tatsuya and Mikihiko have said, I'm just a little weak. Rest will take care of that."

"Why don't you rest here for a few hours, then?" she suggested.

With a shake of her head, Erika replied, "If you don't mind, I'd rather not delay our reunion any longer. It's been a year in the making, and I never intended to do it piecemeal like this." She glanced at Tatsuya and Mikihiko standing nearby.

"Well, everyone's waiting downstairs," Tatsuya said with a nod. "Let's see how this goes, but you can just rest on the couch."

And that's how, despite a bizarre incident that nobody could've predicted, Erika and Mizuki ended up having their belated reunion in the crowded small living room on the ground floor of the house. Due to Erika's still wobbly legs, Tatsuya picked her up and carried her, despite her vociferous protests.

"Not everyone gets this sort of 'princess treatment,'" was all he would say.

With an evil smirk Mizuki carried a blanket Mrs. Hyoudou gave her and so her fate was sealed.

ZZZ

Lying on the couch and covered by the blanket, Erika had the idea that she shouldn't have complained so bitterly to Tatsuya as he carried her to the elevator and then into the room where all of their other friends were waiting. Leo, Honoka, Shizuku, Miyuki, Minami, and Kei Isori as well as the Saegusa twins, Kasumi and Izumi. The last three Erika didn't know all that well, but when the tears started, Mrs. Hyoudou pushed the other residents of the house out of the room and locked the door behind her.

"They need some time in private," was all she would say.

After fifteen minutes of lying on that couch, looking like an invalid at a long-term care facility—or so it seemed to her—Erika threw off the blanket and sat up instead. It wasn't just embarrassment. Honoka and Shizuki were trying to make themselves comfortable around her, and that just wasn't possible when she was horizontal. Instead, she made room for them to sit down and hold her hands.

She wasn't sure who was getting more reassurance from that, them or her, and she didn't want to ask.

In the year they hadn't seen each other, what was most evident to Erika was how much they had all matured. It was especially visible on Tatsuya's and Miyuki's cousin Minami and on the twins. They were the youngest, after all. Aside from them, the biggest change seemed to have occurred to Tatsuya's younger sister, Miyuki.

She didn't crowd him. She didn't sit demurely in a chair by his side. She didn't look up at him with empty, adoring eyes whenever he said something halfway intelligent. Hell, not once did she call him 'onii-sama,' but referred to him by name. In the past, Erika often wondered if she even knew what her own brother's name was. Stranger still, the atmosphere between them didn't turn pink and flowery whenever he patted her head, though she still seemed to enjoy it.

That really drove home the point that they had definitely grown up in the past year.

Honoka seemed free of her infatuation with Tatsuya, though Erika couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing, while Shizuku was as outwardly emotionless as ever. She wondered how the girl was handling her now-unrequited addiction to high school magic competitions.

Leo didn't say anything to her, not at first. Instead, he grasped her by the back of her neck and drew her in close where he touched his forehead to hers without saying anything for a good minute. Finally, he said just two words.

"Welcome back."

It was at that moment that Erika realized she belonged again. This particular circle of friends were the most important people to her outside of her own family, and in some ways, even more so. In the past, whenever she managed to make any friends, she inevitably let them drift away, but these got under her guard even before their first class started, over two years ago now and in a different world. Got under her guard, and stayed there.

The three youngest girls—Minami, Kasumi, and Izumi—she didn't know enough to judge their change, but Kei Isori, an almost androgynous boy seemed to have achieved some masculinity as he matured. As far as Erika was concerned, the three were nothing more than an appendage to Tatsuya's and Miyuki's work on the Student Council, but now they had become the last links to their old world. There was no choice now but to include them in her 'friends list'.

After all the inevitable questions that teenagers had for each after a year of separation were asked and answered, Erika had a question of her own.

"About the dandelion, did you guys send it?" And just like that, the good vibe following their reunion vanished. After taking note of the situation, she asked, "What, did I say something bad?"

It was Kei Isory who broke the silence first.

"No, no, you couldn't have known since we did everything in our power to keep it from you two, but the reason your move was so hastily arranged was mainly due to us running out of time."

Erika felt a twinge in her stomach, a premonition.

"What do you mean by that?"

"To understand that, you have to understand the current situation in this world. But first, a bit of history. When we first arrived in this world, it was smack in the middle of a war. I don't mean in the human world, though those were certainly common enough. No, I'm talking about the spiritual realms. Basically, they were all in an uproar due to some idiots running around flashing their powers, trying to cause an apocalypse for some incomprehensible reason, being a general nuisance.

"I don't know, maybe because of that they started looking for new troublemakers, because almost as soon as went to the welfare office for help, we were identified as 'special power users' and became subject to the authority of the Japanese branch of the Grigori organization." He smiled, a far more manly look than anything she had ever seen on his face before. "When I say 'authority,' I mean that nobody in Japan's government knows anything about them. It's the complete opposite of our world where magicians are owned and controlled by the government via the Hundred Families."

"Who the hell are the Grigori?" Erika demanded. The Vice-Principal never said anything about that, though in all likelihood, he probably had no idea at all.

"Fallen Angels," Mikihiko told her and she started in surprise. Were these the same as what she saw in the mind of Lilith? "They're part of the world's power balance. I don't know why they Fell, though I was told it was due to giving in to their lustful natures, or what their organization was like in the past. These days, they're just a bunch of perverts who spend their time immersed in really weird research."

Shizuku laughed out loud at that, then blushed and covered her mouth with her free hand. When her eyes met Erika's, she just giggled and acted as though it didn't happen.

"Anyway," Kei Isori continued, "once they started researching us, we had no choice but to cooperate. We were sequestered for months while they conducted their research and we ended up having to explain about our world, our classification, and even about the Course 1/Course 2 dichotomy. They were very interested in everything we said and seemed almost childishly delighted every time we demonstrated a skill.

"In the end, they decided we weren't terrorists, but they couldn't allow us to just roam free, not with all those terrorist groups running around. They gave us the choice of joining them, joining the magician guild Grauzauberer, or going to school at Kuoh Academy where we would be under the supervision of the Gremory and Sitri families. Of course they didn't explain their true nature to us; we had to find that out for ourselves later.

"It wasn't really that difficult of a choice to make. We were so new to this world, without any resources of our own, and it is almost the complete opposite of what we had known. Going to school was the only choice we were familiar with. What did we know about Fallen Angels or the guild Grauzauberer? We were under close observation until preparations were completed at the school and accommodation provided."

"Okay, I get that you had a rough time getting accepted by the local powers that be, but that still doesn't explain about the flower."

"Right, that. About a month and a half into our initial examination by these Fallen Angels, news came that you two had been found, living and attending school in another part of Tokyo as official orphans. We made a deal with them so they would monitor you, but otherwise leave you alone in exchange for our complete cooperation. However, the magician guild Grauzauberer said they would only allow that to go on for so long without making contact.

"When we heard that they were sending agents out to talk to you both, we knew that our time was up and so preparations for your transfer were made. Rather hastily, I would say, which might explain some of your earlier concerns about that. So long as you're here with us, you won't have to make these decisions on your own. It was just good fortune that you were moved on the same day those agents went to visit your orphanage. Since they knew that Course 1 students were called _Blooms_ and Course 2 _Weeds_ , they must've decided to send you a message, of sorts."

"All these things were going on behind our backs," Mizuki said, "and we had no idea. We didn't even know that any of you were here, either. Why didn't you at least contact us to let us know you were safe?"

Mikihiko squeezed her hand and Erika realized that he hadn't actually let go of it through this entire discussion. "Yeah, sorry about that. That part about 'leaving you alone' included us staying away and not communicating. They wanted to see how you would act when you weren't restrained by any club, organization, or social circle."

Well, that made sense to Erika, but one thing was quite clear.

"So, these Fallen Angels and the Gremory family, they've been lying to the Board of Education. Fujioka-sensei, our last Vice Principal, said you guys spent a week at a hotel before being brought here."

Tatsuya smirked. "Some truths—or even half-truths—some lies, stir it together, and serve piping hot. People will swallow it whole without question. In that regard, at least, it's no different from own world."

"When you say it with that grin on your face," Erika muttered, "it makes me question your moral rectitude."

"I never claimed to be all that invested in such things," he replied and everyone laughed.

"But wait a minute," she said. "It sounds like we all arrived roughly at the same time, and from what you've said, you were investigated for months before making it to this school. How have you managed your classes after coming in so late?"

"They created a Course 2 in both Year 1 and Year 2 curriculums," Isori replied. "It shares non-academic classes like phys-ed with the rest of the school, but otherwise it's an accelerated program where they cram a year's worth of education into either half a year or three-quarters of a year, depending on when you arrived. They were thinking that staggering the years was a good idea, but just couldn't find a way to make it work for graduation.

"We tried to explain that that's not how Course 1 and Course 2 worked, but they wouldn't listen. Said if we didn't like it, we could wait at that hotel for the rest of the year. So we shut up and let them do what they wanted.

"Anyway, as for the magicians, it's not like the guild was going to kidnap you or anything," Isori continued. "At worst, they would pressure you into joining. Even with us, they send agents every couple of weeks. We've been holding them off by telling them that we're still high school students, some of us in First Year, but given that they've got members who are in primary school, it's getting harder and harder to justify that excuse. For now, we're lucky that we have a third year of school to look forward to since until we graduate, we're under the authority of the Gremory family. They'll probably become more insistent afterward."

"But, Isori-senpai, what is it that they want, exactly?" Mizuki asked.

"No, please, just call me Kei. But to answer your question, they want our membership, in Grauzauberer or any other registered guild."

"That sounds familiar," Erika said. "What, are they afraid of stray magicians?"

Though she phrased it as a joke, stray magicians even in her own world were no laughing matter. How many problems had they caused? It was even said that they were responsible for the Yokohama invasion of 2095, not necessarily leading the troops but providing technical support and information. Even she had become embroiled in the minor magician civil war that erupted a year later.

"That's exactly what they're afraid of," Mikihiko said, catching her off-guard. "They even call them that. There've been a few incidents, and Kuoh Academy itself was attacked, but we managed to prevent anyone in our vicinity from being hurt without revealing our abilities. Those who attacked the school weren't interested in us, anyway. But, before we got enrolled here, we all sat down and discussed it. The agreement we made was that, as much as possible, we would keep our abilities a secret from the others. In the end, it didn't work out that way."

"Did something happen?"

He shook his head. "Not at first. The bus they hired dropped us off at this house, which was the first surprise. The second was that the Gremory family makes its base here for their operations not related to school affairs, and the third is the Occult Research Club at school which is their base there. Anyway, Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou didn't really know anything about what was going on, or even who all the kids living here were, but they offered our youngest pair—" He smiled at Kasumi and Izumi. "—a room of their own here because they didn't want girls that young living without supervision. Minami, too, got an offer, but she decided to stay with Miyuki and Tatsuya, and since she so naturally sounded like their relative, they let her. The rest of us moved into the residences provided. After some time, we found out what this world really like.

"When we first came to Kuoh Academy, we were all like, 'Ha ha, Fallen Angels. Very funny.' Then that insane attack happened and we found out that not only do Fallen Angels exist, but Angels and Devils do, too. They're nothing like all the stories make them out to be, but we were told later that they had changed over the last thousand years or so. And it's not just them, either. Pretty much any fantastic being you can think of from Japanese and Continental folklore, they exist, either now or in the past. Some have gone extinct, others into hiding, and most try to coexist with an unaware humanity as peaceably as possible."

"Kuroka-san said that even the European legends tend to be true," Shizuku said in her trademark deadpan tone, "but the monster population of the Americas is much thinner than on other continents. They are more reliant on demonic energies to maintain their human form and intelligence, and so they tend to stay in isolated realms for longer without interacting with humanity. As far as the nonhuman population of the Americas is concerned, it's mostly Devils, Fallen Angels, and the monsters that moved there from other areas of the world."

"Kuroka-san, you say?" Erika said, tapping a finger against her chin and remembering that swishing tail. "Well, she would know, I guess. But you say any I can think of? Then, how about, oh I don't know, a nine-tailed fox."

"There's one living at this house, and whole families in Kuoh Town," Kasumi piped up suddenly. Up until then, the twins didn't show any inclination toward doing much talking, but quietly sat close to Mizuki. "She's usually in her human form, but sometimes her tail and ears show up. All in all, I'd say she's probably the most polite of the whole lot of them, probably because she's the youngest and a princess. But even she will say outrageous things out of the blue."

Erika stared at her.

"Tail, you say? You mean like Kuroka?"

Izumi giggled. "Oh, right, Kuroka-san's tail, but that's not who Kasumi means. Kuroka-san is a nekomata, a cat spirit, like her sister Koneko, but Kunou is a nine-tailed fox. She's only twelve or thirteen."

With a nervous laugh, Mizuki said, "We heard these names from Mrs. Hyoudou, but to be honest, I thought she was either crazy or pulling our leg."

"Well, I'm not entirely sure you're wrong," Tatsuya said after getting a cup of tea from his sister. "She and her husband, sometimes I think their acceptance of the supernatural is highly abnormal. Maybe it's because their son is smack in the middle of it, but even before they got kidnapped, they rationalized every weird thing that happened around them in a way that simply wasn't normal for regular humans."

Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou had basically admitted to all this during their limo ride from Tokyo, and it was interesting to see it confirmed through another conversation. There was another topic that needed to be finished, however.

Mikihiko then said, "Even in our own world, when people said they accepted magic as reality, they were only talking about Modern Magic, with its clean, almost sterile appearance. Of course, that's not a surprise, given its development history. But do you remember your reactions to the downright monstrous organic forms Ancient Magic can generate?" She and Leo both nodded. They were there together, after all, when magically produced animals started eating a person. "What's going on in this house is more akin to that than the relatively harmless magic they teach at school."

"I see, but you started telling us why you couldn't keep your abilities a secret from the school?"

"Oh, it wasn't that the school found out," Kei Isori replied, "but rather the Occult Research Club and the Student Council, who weren't even here during that time. When that attack started, Kuoh was the only inland city in Japan to be targeted. We had no choice but to help defend it. There were some others at the school that had various abilities, so you can say we found out about each other."

"At first, we tried to just provide support for the various groups already defending Kuoh," Tatsuya picked up the story, "but there were just too many enemies and they were too fast. I think Kasumi and Izumi were first. When their position was in danger of being overrun, they abandoned their personal magics and started casting Nitrogen Storm together." He gave them an indecipherable look and the two girls squirmed in their seats. "I mean, really, you two, collecting that much liquid nitrogen from the atmosphere but not being able to control it all so it would fall back on your own allies and position. Even half a year later, I still can't get over it."

"We explained all that, Tatsuya-senpai," Izumi replied before the hotheaded Kasumi could explode. "None of our other magics were strong enough against that horde of dragons. Our only choice at that time was to switch to carpet bombing from precision attacks. Even with that, we couldn't destroy the enemies, but our attacks slowed them down enough for others to pick off."

"Even then, we were only able to go all out because Leo-senpai shielded us the whole time so we could concentrate on attacking," Kasumi added and for the first time Erika noticed the strange, meaning-filled looks she was throwing toward her friend who turned bright red and looked away.

Tatsuya shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, I understand that. Remind me to give you extra lessons in battlefield awareness."

"Did you learn a new defensive magic?" she asked Leo who was still blushing.

So it was like that? Well, good for them. Maybe they learned their lesson from Mikihiko and Mizuki and won't mope around for two years. But, if Kazumi had any interest in Leo, she would have to learn how to cook since he had far more interest in food than romance.

Oh, well, it would give them something to do.

"Well," he said, running a hand through his hair, "I suck at ranged attacks, as I always have, but if it's defence or bashing someone's face in, leave it to me. We found a small structure still standing and camped in there while I cast Fortification Magic on it. It Izumi and Kasumi had a secure platform from which to fight back, but after a while, I started getting worried about the sheer numbers of attackers. Also, we never never trained in surface-to-air warfare against whole swarms of attackers. It turns out area-of-effect magic was the best at that, but carpet bombing air was not how pictured that day starting."

"But wait a minute," Erika said, breaking into his narration. "What were the police, military, and government doing through all this? With the city under attack like that, I can't imagine they would sit it out. In our own world, the Yokohama invasion caught everyone off-guard and allowed them to penetrate deeply into the city, but the subsequent response by military and police was quite swift and effective, even if pockets of civilians were left to fend for themselves."

"It's different here," Tatsuya replied. "In this world, Japan isn't as heavily militarized as it was back home, and while there is an army base in Kuoh Town, it wasn't all that big and is basically just a supply dump. As for the police, what can they do against flying things that can eviscerate a man in the blink of an eye? They're barely armed with .38 revolvers which are all but useless against what attacked the city. This also isn't a world where giant lizards routinely attack Tokyo, so the military doesn't make it a habit to keep vast inventories of tank-mounted laser guns."

"Wait, you made a joke again. Tatsuya! Stop it, you're ruining my cherished image of you."

Everyone stopped to chuckle, even his sister who reached over to hug him.

"I'm so proud of you," she whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

He coughed to clear his throat. "Anyway, the attack came so far out of left field that literally nobody expected it, it was too swift for the regular authorities to do anything about it. It was left to all the supernatural presences in this city to come to its defence, We found out later that quite an army was gathered to fight, but no one expected that swarm to head for Kuoh." Shaking his head, he stared up at the ceiling. "Even now, half a year later, very little about that incident makes sense, but that's also true of this entire world, so I guess it doesn't matter. We must live here, so I think it would be best if we got used to the idea. Despite everyone fighting, we couldn't really make much headway against the attackers, but somewhere else the fight was going much better and the remaining swarm was recalled.

"We still thought we could hide our powers. Everyone around us was going all out, and we can get lost in the crowd. What's one more magic attack when you're surrounded by impossible beings all doing the same thing? Or so we thought. We had no idea someone noticed us and then told the Occult Research Club. Apparently, the Gremory Family had only been told that we're in special circumstances and they didn't pry into our affairs so long as we respected everyone's boundaries. After that, it became impossible to keep secrets."

During the silence that ensued, Tatsuya paused to take a close look at Erika's and Mizuki's faces, then smiled around the group. Erika felt almost betrayed by the whole thing. His trademark deadpan expression and emotionless face were so well-known at school that most kids thought he was incapable of anything else. Unlike them, she who had been one of his closest friends at school, knew that he was also capable of absolutely terrifying expressions. Only, now his range had apparently been expanded and she felt absolutely crushed that she hadn't been around to see it happen in real time.

"Okay, I don't think we should be imitating Lilith too much and dumping so much info on Erika and Mizuki all at once. Let's cut this short for now and formally introduce them to this household. Starting tomorrow, we have a long weekend and we can finish our discussions then, though in all honesty it'll be a lot easier on you if you learned this stuff as it happens around you. There's simply too much going on to just explain everything."

"I agree," Kei Isori said, "but before we do that, let me just say one last thing. Erika, Mizuki, you both should make an effort to learn local magic. We're all Modern Magic users, and therein lies the problem. This world simply doesn't have the infrastructure to maintain our CADs, and as we age and mature, we won't be able to use them anymore, limiting both our spell repertoire and casting speed. For the only Ancient Magic user among us—" He cast a meaningful glance at Mikihiko. "—it won't be an issue going forward since he can always revert back to his original skillset."

That was true, Erika thought. Mikihiko only started learning Modern Magic to cover perceived deficiencies in his original skills, but in terms of Ancient Magic, he wasn't called a prodigy for nothing.

"But, then, I don't understand why Tatsuya went to the trouble to make that charging block," she said.

"Because an unadjusted CAD is still better than none at all," he replied, "and I actually managed to build an adjustment machine." Her eyes widened in surprise at that. "When we came over to this world, I happened to have a pair of CADs on me belonging to the Disciplinary Committee and I sacrificed them. The end result is far from satisfactory, but it does the job, mostly. It can't alter your Activation Sequence lineup nor add new ones, so we're all pretty much limited to what we carried over with us.

"Having said that, our CADs are precision magic instruments that cannot be replaced if damaged or destroyed. It's better to learn not to rely on them. Of course, your other choice is to abandon magic entirely and live your life as an ordinary citizen of Japan. That's why we're saying, learn local magic if you want to continue with that."

"There's another possibility," Mikihiko said and everyone looked at him. He pulled a charm from a pocket and activated it until it glowed green. "I can teach you Ancient Magic techniques if you feel it would be beneficial. It works pretty much the same way that Modern Magic does, except in our case, we use various accoutrements to generate the initial Activation Sequence rather than a CAD. That's what accounts for the slower speeds, but it's no worse than what they experience here."

"Just like this," Leo said and stood up to walk to the coffee table in front of the couch. There he turned his hand over an empty decorative bowl and closed his eyes in concentration.

A spinning magic circle appeared over his hand and a few seconds later, water poured out of it to fill the bowl. Releasing an explosive breath, he closed his fist and the magic circle vanished, but the water stayed. Erika glanced at him and saw that his face was covered with beads of sweat. It must have been exhausting.

"The funny thing," Tatsuya said, staring at the filled bowl, "is that the Magic Calculation Area of our brains handles local magic just fine, but the local magicians don't have any such thing. Just now, Leo didn't use a CAD to generate an Activation Sequence, just fed psions directly into the magic circle he was assembling. They call it spell calculation here and that makes me think that the way Ancient Magic in our old world is performed is basically a mental block, a self-induced limitation. Attacking the Eidos to affect the target is not strictly necessary even there, and I think some practitioners have reached that conclusion. That might explain the monstrous forms capable of directly injuring people that Mikihiko mentioned.

"In our world, if Leo wanted to cast that spell using Modern Magic, he would collect moisture from the surrounding area, pool it, and then release it into a bowl. Here he is creating water directly by feeding his psion reserves into a magic circle designed for water creation. I've tasted it before and it's basically distilled water. You can drink it, but I wouldn't use it in the long term. It's quite impressive, but just like in our own world, training and practice are paramount."

"You know, Leo, that's actually pretty amazing," Erika said without the usual sarcasm which had been a major part of her daily interactions with him.

She really did mean it. While he specialized in fortification magic, her personal skill was speed and acceleration magic. They were both so well-versed in it that it wasn't too much of a stretch to say that in many cases, they didn't even need their CADs to cast it. In class, though, none of those skills were useful and they struggled as a result. For him to be able to cast a completely foreign magic was nothing less than spectacular, even if he struggled with it. His smile seemed to light up the whole room.

"Well, I was taught by Sona Sitri, the previous Student Council President," he said. "She was really good with water magic. As for it not being drinkable in the long term, it's true, so far as that goes. There are additional spell components that need to be added, but I'm not there yet to build a spell with that many complexities."

"Still, don't sell yourself short," she told him.

"I don't think… I can do… that…" Mizuki really started to panic, despite Mikihiko's reassuring presence beside her. "I mean… It's just my eyes… I… can't…"

"You shouldn't be worried, Mizuki," Tatsuya said, his voice calm and reassuring. "If you remember our practice sessions back at First High, it was always you who finished first and with the least amount of help. I don't mean just among this group here, but all the Course 2 students in our grade. When you were teamed up with me, _I_ was the one to hold _you_ back, not the other way around."

Even Erika remembered that. He'd always been much stronger in the theory of magic and of magic engineering than in the practice of it, an unusual combination of skills that often puzzled even faculty. Of course that was common school wisdom across the full spectrum of magic education: you can't understand theory without being able to put it into practice. But, Tatsuya's performance in their first Nine School Competition and his unexpected ability to lead a group of Course 2 students to triumph over many Course 1 teams from other schools blew all those assumptions out of the water.

The Course 3 that he and Mizuki transferred to in their second year was created specifically to address the embarrassment the school suffered. If the educational authorities in their world had two brain cells to rub together, they would have pressured him to study toward a teacher's license so he could help alleviate the quagmire of failed dreams Course 2 had become. Instead, they tried to get him to transfer to Fourth High which emphasized magic engineering over practical skills. Wait, that would mean…

She burst out laughing, prompting all eyes to turn to her.

"Erika, what so funny?" Honoka asked. She and Shizuku had remained largely silent throughout this whole discussion, preferring to sit and listen while holding her hands.

"Oh, no, sorry, it's just that I realized something. Back then, you got pressured to transfer because you were embarrassing the school, and Mizuki and me were expelled from our first school because I ran roughshod over the administration's wish to not do anything about the bullying problem. This world is actually pretty similar to our own. Somehow that makes me feel better."

Tatsuya made an inelegant grunt. "Hold on to that feeling because from now on, you'll see firsthand how different this world actually is. Now, Miyuki, if you don't mind…"

"Of course not, Tatsuya." She rose from her chair and went over to the door.

Watching his sister slip out of the room, he said without turning his head, "Now listen, you two. I know what happened earlier was an accident, but you must be careful if you're going to live here. Not only do these people go to school and walk around town armed with cosmic-level, apocalypse-causing powers that are entirely unrestrained, but they also have no understanding of self-control. The only rule they seem to follow is something in the nature of 'Don't cause problems in the human world.'"

Kei, who was sitting beside him, gave a disbelieving shake of his head, then reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Really, Tatsuya, of all people, you shouldn't be saying that. Remind me again, who here among us is walking around with barely restrained apocalyptic powers?"

Tatsuya actually flushed and looked away in mild embarrassment, but before she or Mizuki could ask what they were talking about, the door opened and a group of young people walked in. Everyone rose to welcome them and the time for further questions seemed to be over.

ZZZ

Two hours later, after another round of introductions, it turned out that most of the other residents were absent, having not yet returned from some mysterious mission they had undertaken. Erika and Mizuki met only a few new people. One of these was Xenovia Quarta, a 3rd Year student at Kuoh Academy and the current Student Council President, a girl with blue hair and green stripes, and dressed in comfortable slacks and a shirt. On shaking hands with her, Erika noted the strength of her grip, and squeezed harder. The girl silently grinned in response and returned the gesture.

Erika's hand throbbed for the next thirty minutes.

Tatsuya, who had witnessed the exchange, covered his face with his hand. It looked almost like he had given up on her, while Miyuki stood behind him and massaged his shoulders before glancing up.

"Erika, you really need to learn who is safe to play with and who isn't," she said with a strained laugh. "For now, please excuse us; there's something we need to discuss with our host."

Then they, together with Kei Isori, went off to speak with Issei who, again, looked surprisingly fidgety and nervous. His cell phone was out and he kept glancing at it. He wasn't the only one, either. Even Xenovia looked gloomy, despite eagerly participating in and winning the hand grip contest.

What the hell was going on?

She wanted to go along with them to at least get to know this boy whose house she and Mizuki would be sharing, but got waylaid by the other new person they were introduced to. The small blonde girl wearing a shrine maiden outfit with giant red pentagrams on the sleeves was named Kunou and she gave off a strange vibe that Erika couldn't quite explain. One glance at Mizuki told her that her friend was thinking the same thing. Then the glasses came off and she stood there, transfixed, staring with an open mouth at the space above the girl's head.

"Oh, wow! She really is a Nine-Tailed Fox."

"That's enough," Mikihiko said and put them back on her face.

"Mizuki, remind me again who was it who lectured someone on foolishly opening yourself to danger," Erika muttered.

"Well, yes, but reading someone's spirit body and aura is completely different." She even managed to say it in a lofty tone. "Even if I'm overloaded, it just causes pain and doesn't do any real damage. And it seems to me that since we came to this world, it hurts less. Besides, I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life being afraid of losing my glasses."

Even if she was loathe to admit it, there was some justification for what Mizuki just said, and Erika grunted in agreement. In fact, learning to control those eyes is the sole reason Mizuki enrolled in Magic First High in the first place.

"I can't believe it's actually true." Kunuo was positively dancing in place, giving the two girls a speculative look. "I heard stories about your so-called Eyes That Can See God, but I didn't believe it."

"Why is that, Kunou-sama?" Mizuki asked, sounding a bit flustered at the girl's appearance and behaviour. Even for Erika, raised in a household that prided itself on proper public etiquette, her Noble Lady act was a bit grating. "Is it something so unusual?"

"Well, of course it's unusual, on a human." The girl was trying hard to contain her excitement, but underneath she almost burbled. "Even most yokai and devils can only sense aura, while human magicians must cast spells to do that and then read and analyze the feedback. Getting an accurate reading of a person's astral form with just a glance like that is possible only for certain yokai races." She closed her eyes and struck a pose that Erika commonly associated with boasting. "My mother Yasaka who is the leader of the Kyoto yokai can accurately judge a person's whole character by studying the astral form, and as her daughter, naturally I inherited that ability."

Erika stared. That's an impressive skill she's got there, to boast about her parentage, her parent's skill, as well as her own, in one sentence. Of course, she was also young enough not to realize that the sort of ability she was talking about she be kept quiet. Or that boasting really wasn't all that cool.

"Would you like me to teach you?" Kunou asked, looking up with childish hope for acknowledgement at Mizuki's puzzled face. "I can help you learn how to read a person without getting hurt or exposing yourself to harmful information."

"Yes, please," Mizuki replied before Erika or Mikihiko could say anything and bowed. "I will be under your care."

"Leave it to me!" the girl exclaimed and pumped her fist in the air. She positively trembled with excitement. Then her expression darkened and she looked toward Issei Hyoudou who sat on a chair with his cell phone out and nervously tapped the table in front of him. It was then that Erika noticed how subdued everyone from the house was. "But for now, I must go do my duty as the Junior Wife-in-Training."

"Did something happen?" Erika asked, then did a double-take while Mizuki choked on nothing but air. There's no way she really heard what she thought she heard, but Kasumi's words floated through her mind. _Even she says some outrageous things._ "No, before that, what did you just say?"

But Kunou just looked away in silence, her eyes locked in place on Issei Hyoudou's form. She said nothing for some time before reminding Erika and Mizuki that this world wasn't as safe or placid as its outward appearance suggested.

"Rossweisse-sama has gone missing."

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello and thanks for reading. Sorry about the delays, but unfortunately they're inevitable now. Work has been kicking my ass lately and I simply haven't had the strength to write as much as I did before. It's been an interesting adventure and I hope you'll stay with me.


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